Canadian Lawyer

24 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m ennifer Llewellyn has a grand, some might say crazy, vision: to see the the criminal justice system transformed from an adversarial realm of fact-finding and punish- ment to one where instead damaged social relationships are recognized, reconstructed, and restored. In other words, she wants to diminish the role of the law — with its fixation on legal guilt and responsibility — and replace it with something more akin to psychology, sociology, and history. This may be surprising given that Llewellyn is a lawyer and a professor at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. But what interests her more than the law, per se, is the fundamental issue of justice, spe- cifically "restorative justice," which she calls the cure for much of what plagues criminal justice in Canada today. "The people on the front lines, certainly those I know — the lawyers working as defence counsel with legal aid, prosecu- tors, judges — are really acutely aware that something has to change. They see the same people coming back to the system, they see the victims of harm, and the future harms that will be caused by the same people coming back because the system is not meeting their needs. It's not structured to do that. The system has broken down." In 2002, when she joined the faculty full time at Schulich, Llewellyn created the country's first law school course on restor- ative justice. One might think the subject too esoteric or high-minded for graduate students focused on preparing themselves for practical careers in law, but every year the course is full and has a waiting list. Attribute some of that to the passion and deep expertise Llewellyn brings to the subject. She was honoured in Novem- ber by the Correctional Service of Can- ada with its 2015 Ron Wiebe Restorative Justice Award, presented at the annual National Restorative Justice Symposium in Quebec City. Llewellyn, who is unilin- gual, conscripted her two sons Owen and Elliot, aged 9 and 11, both French immer- sion students, to write a few sentences in French for her acceptance speech. Neither boy thinks of their mother as a lawyer at all. "If you ask them about my work, they will both tell you, 'It's all about relation- ships — that's what Mom does.'" Llewellyn advocates a simple idea: If human beings are relational — if the essence of our lives and communities is social relationships — "then that should be how we try to do justice at every stage, in every case. If our justice system doesn't address how we can relate in ways that C R O S S E X A M I N E D Visions of transformation Dal law prof Jennifer Llewellyn wants the justice system to focus on social relationships as much as, if not more than, the law. By Richard Foot J

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