When Sylvia Clute attended law school (1970-1973) the students were told that they were learning the best legal system possible. A decade into her legal career, she realized there are two models of justice: vengeance and Love. For the past 37 years Sylvia has studied how to implement justice as Love and created a theory for what she now calls Unitive Justice, a model that has no punitive elements. Unitive Justice theory is based on a comparison of 14 structures found in all punitive systems to 14 structures found in all unitive systems, thus providing a path to concrete system change.
A critical element of Unitive Justice is the circle facilitation process that is used to address conflicts, called Unitive Justice Circles. It is somewhat similar to the circle facilitation process used in Restorative Justice but different. The goal of a Unitive Justice Circle is to discover the underlying brokenness out of which the conflict arose and address that. In the process, the “offender” often realizes the harm that was caused impacted many people and it did not even serve their own interest. With that insight, they are often able to see what they can do differently to go forward with those who were impacted by the harm done. This achieves resolution at a deeper level and is more likely to have a long-lasting impact.
Other characteristics of the Unitive Justice Circle include, but are not limited to: the circle must be a space in which it is safe for all participants to be vulnerable and honest—this is essential for the underlying brokenness to be discovered. Reflective listening is an essential element of the process and the questions asked by the facilitator are the same for all circles so the bias of the facilitator does not enter the process through the questions the facilitator asks. The training to facilitate Unitive Justice Circles is a longer process than training to facilitate RJ circles because UJ circles require an understanding of the unitive principles that are present in the process—it is non-hierarchical, non-judgmental and non-punitive.
Unitive Justice Circles may be used for mediation processes.
**Approved for 1.0 hours CME credit (0.0 ethics) by the Supreme Court of Virginia**
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Presenter Bio
When Sylvia Clute attended law school (1970-1973) the students were told that they were learning the best legal system possible. A decade into her legal career, she realized there are two models of justice: vengeance and Love. For the past 37 years, Sylvia has studied how to implement justice as Love and created a theory for what she now calls Unitive Justice, a model that has no punitive elements. In 2003 she left her law practice to focus on developing Unitive Justice theory and practice. She is President and Executive Director of the Alliance for Unitive Justice (AUJ), a nonprofit headquartered in Richmond, Va. (a4uj.org) Sylvia is now writing lesson plans for courses to be taught at the Unitive Justice Academy, an online training platform where AUJ will offer all of its courses on Unitive Justice theory, practice and implementation. Her new book, Unitive Justice: Bending the Arc of Justice Toward Love, was released in January and is now the text for all of AUJ’s courses on Unitive Justice. Websites: sylviaclute.com and UnitiveJustice.com.
