Challenges of Legal Peacemaking in the Light of Restorative Justice in the Routes on the Old and New Silk Road Nations

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Law & Jurisprudence, The Institute for Research and Development in the Humanities (SAMT), Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Law and Jurisprudence, The Institute for Research and Development in the Humanities (SAMT), Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: The Silk Road, as a symbol of inter-civilizational dialogue and ethnic convergence and the strengthening of cultural contexts, has been less studied from a legal perspective. The interaction of very diverse and unfamiliar tribes with each other has always been a source of tension and a source of conflict and disputes over trade and communication. Historically, peace-seeking and understanding beyond the mere implementation of formal judicial mechanisms, in the event of legal disputes in the interactions and communications of the Silk Road (model of restorative legal peace-seeking), in comparison with punitive and penal means, paved the way for caravans and the passage of caravans It was silk. Legal peace-seeking without relying on legislation, in the modern sense, and bureaucratic litigation has perpetuated a culture of peace and mediation and conciliation in common crimes committed along the Silk Road throughout the history of this region of the world.
According to the findings of the article, the most important pillar of international relations - especially contractual and customary legal cooperation - rests on the axis of cultural commonality. legal understanding is one of the most difficult manifestations of cultural understanding; in ancient nations, the globalization and convergence of the single values of human rights have not been so important. Creating peace and compromise through arbitration has been one of the usual ways of dealing with claims, which is rooted in the ethics and experiences of ancient civilizations in facing cultural differences. Travels, especially on the Silk Road, have been both a platform for disputes between people of different nations, and have provided a ground for innovation in resolving these disputes, with the help of natural ethics and conscientious dialogue, and without resorting to strict legal rules. All civilizations have had a penal system.
Research Question: The article is looking for an answer to the question that the ancient rituals of criminal dispute resolution in the Silk Road relations, especially the restorative justice initiatives in the legal thought of the ancient Iranians, create a capacity for confronting China in resolving legal disputes in the new Silk Road.
Research Hypothesis: Although China's ultimate goal of the New Silk Road initiative is to provide the necessary economic, political, security and especially legal grounds to become a regional and global hegemon, this plan faces serious internal, regional and global obstacles and problems, and is facing and ultimately will not achieve China's desired goals to the maximum extent; In particular, it does not seem feasible for the Silk Road countries to have a single legal system to settle disputes arising from goods transit contracts and crimes committed on the transit route and against this route.  
Methodology and Theoretical Framework: One of the problems in transferring or not transferring the criminal policy of the transit countries of the Silk Road revival plan is the challenge of "non-recognition of laws and judicial judgments of other countries" by the legal system of most countries of the new Silk Road. 
This article follows the qualitative method, by historical-legal analysis of criminal peacemaking, within the framework of the theory of restorative justice in criminology, in the framework of the historical analysis of the rituals of settling legal disputes in the relations between merchants and people on the Silk Road, analyzes the interaction of the legal systems of different nations in the settlement of disputes in the light of the legal system of ancient Iran. The present article, in the framework of the analysis of the history of the evolution of restorative justice rituals in the wide scope of the evolution of ancient criminal law, analyzes the innovative methods of informal proceedings of crimes that occurred between merchants and with people on the Silk Road, and in the meantime, the rituals of justice It highlights the common restorative punishment in the legal system of ancient Iran.
Results and Discussion: The present article, after explaining the theoretical foundations of legal peace-seeking, examines the role of cultural-legal exchanges in the Silk Road in terms of the pattern of criminal policy transmission from a historical point of view and assumes that peace-based mechanisms (restorative justice) are the general tool in solving and the season of legal disputes has been in this way. As a result, reviving the Silk Road with the so-called "One Belt-One Road" scheme, regardless of the conflicts between the legal systems of the transit countries, is a challenge of the same kind as the old Silk Road dilemma.
Conclusion: One of the characteristics of the third millennium is the globalization approach, which has undoubtedly changed many security requirements, social control, cultural, political, national and international relations. Despite this, the world community is still facing serious challenges in achieving international peace and security. Many cases of human rights violations have caused the governments of the world to think of finding a solution to prevent such incidents from happening. In general, there are issues that are not unique to a particular society, but are considered common issues of humans in the third millennium, and their global dimension cannot be neglected. One of the most important issues is peace and human rights. The genealogy of peace rituals and cultural dialogue, peace-seeking rituals in ancient civilizations and long-lasting and deep inter-civilizational relations, such as the interactions of the nations of the Silk Road, are manifested. Legal peacemaking based on the hypothesis that "natural justice is a durable foundation for the establishment of eternal peace" has popularized the culture of peacemaking and criminal mediation and compromise in the crimes committed on the Silk Road caravan route.

Keywords


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