Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 9, 1 September 1994 — The case for profcedural justice [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The case for profcedural justice

Extracted from Four Reasons for Revitalizing Tribal Peacemaking, Diane LeResche, Ph.D., Ināian Law Support Center Report, January 1993. LeResche argues for a tribal peacemaking process as the cornerstone of the lndian jus-

tice system. sne says, "Justice is a niee word, a beautiful theory. It's a noun. But if we look at it closely, if we want to make justice practical, we have to treat it as a verb; for it takes activity, work to make justice eome alive." She defines types of justice as:

LeResche makes the case for procedural justice, where "the way something is decided is often mueh more important than what is decided. How we decide things, how we help people with their conflict is ... more important than the final decision." It "matches

all the parties' ideas of the right way to proceed to resolve their differences." How do we know what the fair process is? she asks. "We have to ask them. We have to set up the processes that reflect the values and customs of our people. There are more than 500 tribal ways of defining a just procedure. We know we aren't all alike but there are some eommon features, even beyond Indian Country, in what people want in a fair process. People want a voice. People want a ehanee to tell their stories. "A just procedure includes decisions that reflect our own ways, reflect the basic values, ethics, morality and customs" of the people. "We need to show one another that Indian value and practices such as cooperation, respecting the interdependence of all, serving others with humility and modesty, are evident in our peacemaking system."

• distribu- , tive justice - who gets a pieee of the pie, equitable sharing of resources; • wild and rough justice - revenge, p u n i s h - ment; and sacred justice - m e n d i n g relationships, healing solutions, reconeiliaūon.