In een column geeft een redacteur of auteur zijn of haar visie op een bepaald onderwerp.

In een redactioneel artikel geeft de redactie een toelichting op het tijdschriftnummer in kwestie.

This article sets the stage for the discussion on the role of legal professionals – lawyers and magistrates – in restorative practices. A common task they have is controlling the respect of fundamental rights of the participants in restorative justice practices. How important this task is, will vary according to different variables such as the goals of restorative justice programs and their position towards the criminal justice system. Lauwaert goes on to sketch in separate parts the possible roles of respectively magistrates and lawyers before, during and after mediation or conferences. She refers to the European legislative framework which foresees an important role for magistrates as gatekeepers and assessors of restorative outcomes and explores the strengths and problems these roles evoke. She refers to her own research to explore the attitudes of magistrates towards restorative practices. Concerning the role of lawyers, the European legislative framework is quite vague, and the article tries to analyse more in depth the possibilities and obstacles for lawyers to contribute to the quality of mediation. The lack of knowledge of and acquaintance with the world of restorative justice and mediation is detected as a serious obstacle for further development of this field of action.

In this article the author explores the role of the lawyer in one particular restorative practice in Flanders: mediation with adult offenders in the framework of the law of 22 June 2005. The author discusses the role the lawyers can play before, during and after the mediation. A striking fact is the extremely low number of references by lawyers to the mediation practice. As elsewhere in the literature, the role of the lawyer during the mediation is most under discussion, although it is clear that representation by the lawyer is not admitted.
Claes also describes the different attitudes mediators developed in actively involving lawyers, which vary from automatically contacting the lawyer of the parties to not contacting the lawyers at all. The motives behind these attitudes concern on the one hand the implementation of the right to legal assistance written in the law and on the other hand the empowerment of the parties and the concern to keep the conflict in the hands of the parties.
Finally, Claes shows how lawyers have been structurally involved in the mediation practice, for example as members of the steering committees of the local mediation services.

This article reports the findings of a series of interviews with a juvenile judge, a public prosecutor and a judge who operates during the administration of the prison sentence. Their role is inquired as this appears in the practices of victim-offender mediation, family group conferencing and victim oriented initiatives during the implementation of the prison sentence. The interviews relate to developments in the Flemish and Brussels region of Belgium and took place against the background of previous findings from research and practice. First, the (legal) context in which public prosecutors and judges are entering into contact with restorative practices is presented. Their role in offering or starting up different types of mediation and conferencing are discussed into detail. Also, the way in which the victim can participate in the administration of the prison sentence is dealt with. As a next step, the role of public prosecutors and judges after mediation or conferencing has taken place is analysed. To which extent can or should they take the outcome of restorative or victim oriented practices into account in further decision making processes? Furthermore attention is given to the relevance and applicability of important restorative justice principles such as voluntary participation and confidentiality when the case goes through the criminal justice process. The article ends with some general evaluative findings on the attitudes and the support of legal professionals towards restorative justice and restorative practices.