Drinking Hemlock: Conversations about the Philosophy of Law

by Mark Oppenheimer, Helen Sarah Robertson

Is the Law just?After facing a jury of his peers, Socrates was sentenced to death for the crime of ‘corrupting the youth’. Athenian law required him to drink a cup of poison hemlock, but did he deserve to die?Are lawyers immoral?Should defence lawyers be allowed to help the guilty go free by outsmarting prosecutors and raising technical points?Are judges lawmakers?Courts have legalised gay marriage and banned the death penalty. When judges deliver landmark decisions, are they making law or merely interpreting it?Drinking Hemlock combines Socratic dialogue with years of experience from practising lawyers to solve these legal conundrums.Author Helen Sarah Robertson completed her doctorate in philosophy at University College London. She lectures at the University of the Witwatersrand.Mark Oppenheimer is an advocate at the Johannesburg Bar. He has appeared in the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court.

275 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 6, 2021

About the author

Mark Oppenheimer is a freelance writer. He is a staff writer for the Christian Century and has written for many publications, including Harper’s, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Yale Review, the Hartford Courant, Playboy, and Slate. He has taught at Wesleyan and Stanford universities.