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5 Pepp. Disp. Resol. L.J. 359 (2005)
Cutting the Cord: Ho'oponopono and Hawaiian Restorative Justice in the Criminal Law Context

handle is hein.journals/pepds5 and id is 365 raw text is: Cutting The Cord: Ho'oponopono And Hawaiian Restorative Justice In The Criminal Law Context Andrew J. Hosmanek' I. INTRODUCTION Ho'oponopono is a traditional Hawaiian dispute resolution system that has recently experienced a resurgence of interest. The word ho'oponopono literally means to make right.2 In this system, both the offender and victim participate in a type of guided mediation along with other stakeholders in the offense. Ho'oponopono is different from typical mediations because after the session is successfully completed, the participants figuratively cut the cord of legal and psychological entanglement that binds them; in other words, the dispute is put to rest forever. When victim and offender come to a true resolution of the prob- lem, and jointly make the decision to move forward without further conflict on the issue, true healing can occur. Recent interest has focused on using ho'oponopono in family law disputes, but the topic of this article will be the potential applications of ho'oponopono in the criminal law context. In Part II I will provide a brief history of ho'oponopono and explain its methods. In Part III I will describe current uses of ho'oponopono. Last, in Part IV I will propose a general plan for using ho'oponopono in the criminal law setting. II. HISTORY OF Ho'OPONOPONO To understand ho'oponopono, one must understand a bit about the Hawai- ian Islands and their history. What we now call Hawaii is a chain of approxi- I. Associate, Fischer Law Firm LLP, Vinton, Iowa (www.fishlawusa.com). JD/MBA 2005, The University of Iowa College of Law and Henry B. Tippie School of Management. B.B.A. Uni- versity of Iowa College of Business, 2001. Email: andrewhosmanek@gmail.com. Mahalo to the Board of the Native Hawaiian Bar Association, especially the Hon. Melvin K. Soong, Ms. Mona Bernadino, and Ms. Yuklin Aluli for their input. Special thanks also to Professors Nancy Hauser- man and Lon Moeller of the University of Iowa College of Business for their constant support and inspiration. Mahalo nui loa! 2. Manu Meyer, To Set Right - Ho'oponopono, A Native Hawaiian Way of Peacemaking, The Compleat Lawyer 30, Fall 1995. 359

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