A Comparative Study of the Manifestations of Restorative Justice in the Criminal Law of Afghanistan and Iran

Abstract

Restorative justice has received much attention from legal and criminological scholars for its much utility and effectiveness within both the formal and informal systems of criminal justice, while also including features that are alongside the classical criminal justice system, as has been progressively reflected in various regional and international documents. Restorative justice will bring together the victim, offender, and local community and through meetings between the involved parties to a criminal incident seek to reach a mutually agreeable solution. Criminal justice systems in both Afghanistan and Iran have adequate capacities for implementing restorative justice programs for dispute resolution because of their close relation with Islamic jurisprudence and customary law. In this respect, out of Iran and Afghanistan, the legal systems of both countries have ample potential in the area of restorative justice; however, the formal law department refers better manifestations of restorative justice reflectively in the Iranian legal system, while in regard to informal law Afghanistan has better potential and capacity. It indicates that sense of more than 80% disputes and conflicts of the people in Afghanistan will be resolved in the form of methods under quasi-judicial procedures following restorative justice. They are trained on data up to October 2023.