Greek Law in Its Political Setting: Justifications Not Justice

Greek Law in Its Political Setting: Justifications Not Justice

Oxford University Press, USA | ISBN 0198140851 | 1996 Edition | PDF | 262 Pages | 1.6MB

This volume explores the way in which law integrated with other aspects of life in ancient Greece. The papers collected here reveal a number of different pathways between law and political, social, and economic life in Greek societies. Emanating from several scholarly traditions, they offer a range of contrasting but complementary insights rarely collected together. What emerges clearly is that law in Greece only takes on its full meaning in a broadly political context. Dynamic tensions govern the relationships between this semi-autonomous legal arena and other spheres of life. An ideology of equality before the law was juxtaposed with a practical reality of individuals' unequal abilities to cope with it. It is hard to draw firm lines between the settlement of cases in court and the spill-over of legal actions into the agora, the streets, the fields, and the houses. Hence it is hardly surprising if justice can all too easily give way to justification.

`the volume as a whole should stimulate critical discussion which goes well beyond the confines of students of Greek law' The Cambridge Law Journal

`The seven papers in this stimulating collection were delivered at a seminar at the Institute of Classical Studies in 1989, and their publication has been eagerly awaited for some time. The study of Greek law has been revided in recetn years ... The papers in this collection are both part of and a stimulus to this revival. No one interested in Greek law can ignore them.' Michal Gagarin, The University of Texas at Austin, Journal of Hellenic Studies