Restorative Justice within Italian Criminal Law: Another Step beyond Retributive Justice (with Some Contradictions)

The essay concerns the role of restorative justice, also known as RJ, within the Italian legal system and, in particular, the relationship between “restorative justice” and “retributive justice” as paradigms of justice. It revolves around the alternative between the ability of “restorative justice” to act as a substitute for “retributive justice”, so that the two “forms” of justice would coexist side-by-side; and - alternatively - the capacity of “restorative justice” to operate within the traditional framework of “retributive justice”, where the issue of compatibility between these two models of justice becomes of paramount importance. The relationship between RJ and "retributive justice" is considered both from a functional point of view and with regard to the operational modalities of each model of justice.