Adjusting the scales: restorative justice and the balance of power

The figure of Justice is instantly recognisable by her sword and scales. This article takes the complexity of this image as the starting point for an exploration of different approaches to the administration of justice and their consequences. It contrasts the often divisive Western adversarial tradition with increasingly influential restorative approaches that seek the re-establishment of individual and social harmony, and shows how differently issues of power are understood and resolved by each. It asks what makes restorative justice so successful, and suggests that by actively seeking to restore ‘right order’, it is drawing on archetypal energy encoded in the image of Justice itself.