Restorative justice: a legally binding instrument to implement our ecological duties

Whilst an ever-increasing cycle of environmental disasters, degradation, loss of ecological integrity and environmental pollution caused by human beings seems to be the general rule for a world gone astray, at the same time there are emerging signs that many individuals and groups are trying to find a ‘way out’ from the environmentally unfriendly manner in which we live and use Planet Earth. Research on ecological duties, on their implementation and on how to construct an ecological society are examples of this emerging effort. This article suggests that, despite the fact that restorative justice has been used only occasionally by national and international courts to deal with environmental crimes, this new mechanism might be a tool to implement our ecological duties, helping to upgrade them from a level of mere moral obligation to legally binding obligations and, as a consequence, orienting people towards more environmentally friendly behaviours. The first part of this article provides an overview of ecological duties, with a brief analysis of the concept of the ‘ecological citizen’. The second part explores the background of restorative justice, paying close attention to the origin of the term, its nature, aims and players. The final part of the article seeks to open up new discussions of restorative justice by showing how it could be deployed in the environmental crime process to implement our ecological duties.