The 2015 restorative justice process at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Dentistry is a case study that reveals the connection at conceptual and practical levels between restorative justice and responsive regulation as common expressions of relational theory and practice. Their relationship is clearest when, as in this case, issues are understood in their full contexts and circumstances require a widening of the circle of issues and parties. At this scale the complexity of the situation and the need for responsive interventions capable of supporting and sustaining a just relationship is revealed.