Whither Community Justice?: The Rise of Court-Connected Mediation in the United States

This paper traces the development of mediation in the United States along two distinct paths: the court-connected paradigm and the community justice paradigm. In the former, as a child of the labour arbitration movement, the link between mediation and the law appears to have been forged at conception. In the latter, we see two distinct branches: the \u27Community Mediation Center\u27 model and the neighborhood Justice Center\u27 model. Of those illustrations of community justice, only the first has been strongly connected to the law and legal institutions, while the second strand has retained its institutional independence. These neighbourhood justice centres appear to have maintained their autonomy by \u27staying local\u27 in terms of goals, staff and clients. While this independence is, in itself, a distinct achievement, this paper queries whether it has served to impede the evolution of NJCs in their aspirations to transform society and empower the marginalized inhabitant, when their integration into the mainstream has been so limite