Law and justice in the Courts of Classical Athens
- ISBN: 9780521733014
- Editorial: Cambridge University Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2009
- Lugar de la edición: Cambridge. Reino Unido
- Encuadernación: Rústica
- Medidas: 23 cm
- Nº Pág.: 224
- Idiomas: Inglés
Adriaan Lanni draws on contemporary legal thinking to present a new model of the legal system of classical Athens. She analyses the Athenians' preference in most cases for ad hoc, discretionary decision- making, as opposed to what moderns would call the rule of law. Lanni argues that the Athenians consciously employed different approaches to legal decision-making in different types of courts. The varied approaches to legal process stems from a deep tension in Athenian practice and thinking, between the demand for flexibility of legal interpretation consistent with the exercise of democratic power by ordinary Athenian jurors; and the demand for consistency and predictability in legal interpretation expected by litigants and necessary to permit citizens to conform their conduct to the law. Lanni presents classical Athens as a case study of a successful legal system that, by modern standards, had an extraordinarily individualised and discretionary approach to justice.