Greek Law in Its Political Setting: Justifications Not Justice

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