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The Law in Classical Athens
Book by Douglas McDowell
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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About the author
Douglas M. MacDowell
17 books9 followersDouglas Maurice MacDowell was a British classical scholar. His early career was as a teacher, first in the British Army as part of his national service and then at two private school. He then moved into academia and was a lecturer at the University of Manchester. Finally, for thirty years, he was Professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 16, 2013
Purports to be an introduction, probably succeeds.
Author is a classicist, not an attorney, and apologizes that lawyers may find it unsophisticated (9). That's not really true, for my part; there's a few instances of what would be misused terminology these days, such as "infringement" of a contract (we'd normally say "breach" now), but hell if I know whether the Athenians drew a distinction between breach and infringement and used the latter rather than the former for cases sounding in contract. In these instances, the sense is always manifest, even if technically inaccurate.
What's striking about the Athenian system is that there is no civil/criminal division. This means that a jury in a particular case could award damages, fines, punishments, whatever it thought, unless a specific statute controlled the remedy. Officials of the state could bring cases in some instances, but for the most part Athenian judicial process was initiated by private persons. The main distinction was the type of action available: dike demosia, a case that anyone might file, and dike idia, a case that only a victim or other directly aggrieved person might file (57-58).
No discussion of Athenian constitution--it is focused well on the types of actions available to litigants in particular constellations of substantive law, and lays out briefly the Athenian rules for property, persons, tort, contract, family, and so on (not always using those terms, which are more anglo-american), with attention to jurisdiction and other procedural items. Nice discussions on the law applicable to the military, trade, religion, political offenses.
Some items are genuinely alien, looking back. No attorneys, for instance, means that litigants represented themselves, but could hire speechwriters to assist them; but "to speak in court for a fee, like a modern lawyer, was not merely disreputable but an offence, for which a prosecution by graphe could be brought" (251). So, that's one way to tamp down ambulance chasers. The penalty for the seducer was much more severe than the penalty for the rapist. The testimony of the tortured slave was considered the most reliable evidence, which means that the Bush regime sits on authority of impeccable pedigree of 2,500 years duration. Who knew? No sales on credit, though there was law for promissory notes and suretyship. Rich persons were obligated to perform services to the state, leitourgos, which is translated as "liturgy," which could be supporting a trireme, managing a festival, and so on. Seems like a useful item, to impose upon the rich some measure of public service. Of course, there were ways to weasel out of public service. The best procedure is the antidosis whereat the rich person could name another guy who is allegedly richer and therefore more suitable to bear the burden of the leitourgos, and other guy could disclaim this, offering to swap property with the first one as proof. Apparently, these exchanges actually occurred. WTF?
Good stuff. Lists of different types of actions available are great (though author is careful to distinguish that these are not forms of action or causes of action as the Romans or English common law barristers know them). Lot more of interest than I'm willing to vomit up here.
Author is a classicist, not an attorney, and apologizes that lawyers may find it unsophisticated (9). That's not really true, for my part; there's a few instances of what would be misused terminology these days, such as "infringement" of a contract (we'd normally say "breach" now), but hell if I know whether the Athenians drew a distinction between breach and infringement and used the latter rather than the former for cases sounding in contract. In these instances, the sense is always manifest, even if technically inaccurate.
What's striking about the Athenian system is that there is no civil/criminal division. This means that a jury in a particular case could award damages, fines, punishments, whatever it thought, unless a specific statute controlled the remedy. Officials of the state could bring cases in some instances, but for the most part Athenian judicial process was initiated by private persons. The main distinction was the type of action available: dike demosia, a case that anyone might file, and dike idia, a case that only a victim or other directly aggrieved person might file (57-58).
No discussion of Athenian constitution--it is focused well on the types of actions available to litigants in particular constellations of substantive law, and lays out briefly the Athenian rules for property, persons, tort, contract, family, and so on (not always using those terms, which are more anglo-american), with attention to jurisdiction and other procedural items. Nice discussions on the law applicable to the military, trade, religion, political offenses.
Some items are genuinely alien, looking back. No attorneys, for instance, means that litigants represented themselves, but could hire speechwriters to assist them; but "to speak in court for a fee, like a modern lawyer, was not merely disreputable but an offence, for which a prosecution by graphe could be brought" (251). So, that's one way to tamp down ambulance chasers. The penalty for the seducer was much more severe than the penalty for the rapist. The testimony of the tortured slave was considered the most reliable evidence, which means that the Bush regime sits on authority of impeccable pedigree of 2,500 years duration. Who knew? No sales on credit, though there was law for promissory notes and suretyship. Rich persons were obligated to perform services to the state, leitourgos, which is translated as "liturgy," which could be supporting a trireme, managing a festival, and so on. Seems like a useful item, to impose upon the rich some measure of public service. Of course, there were ways to weasel out of public service. The best procedure is the antidosis whereat the rich person could name another guy who is allegedly richer and therefore more suitable to bear the burden of the leitourgos, and other guy could disclaim this, offering to swap property with the first one as proof. Apparently, these exchanges actually occurred. WTF?
Good stuff. Lists of different types of actions available are great (though author is careful to distinguish that these are not forms of action or causes of action as the Romans or English common law barristers know them). Lot more of interest than I'm willing to vomit up here.
January 31, 2023
I thought this was really interesting. Don't listen to a man (William) who takes a history class and then gets mad because it is a "summary of facts and things that happened" and "talks too much about Athenian people."
August 20, 2008
I took a college seminar class on Ancient Greek Law and this was the primary class text used. The book does not stand on its own and shouldn't be read by people with only a general interest in Greek history. It is a decent starting off point for approaching a sparsely reseached field especially for readers whom, like me, cannot understand the Greek laws in their original language.
August 18, 2016
can be a bit dry at times, but very good and comprehensive guide to athenian law. would definitely recommend for people who are interested in greek law (i imagine basic knowledge of ancient history would help).
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews