VOLUNTEER PROSECUTORS IN THE GREEK WORLD 1

www.sfu.ca/nomoi, 2022

Journal of Ancient Civilizations, 2018

This is a survey of recent work in Ancient Greek Law and covers several areas such as the unity of Greek Law, law in the Archaic period, literacy and Greek Law, legislation (nomothesia), the sources for Greek Law, homicide law at Athens, law and economy, and law and religion.

E. Harris and M. Canevaro (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Law

This chapter deals with the impact of Roman legal institutions and political realities of Roman dominance on legal institutions in the Greek world, and with developments of Greek law within the imperial framework from the fall of Corinth to its last traces in late imperial legislation. It addresses in particular the specific characteristics of sources for Greek law in the Roman period, conflicts of jurisdiction between Greek poleis and imperial authorities, the law of personal status in the new imperial context and new developments in the law of property and obligation. The concluding sections deals with the demise of Greek law in late antiquity and its afterlife in late imperial legislation.

Symposion 2022. Vorträge zur griechischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (Gmunden, 22.–24. August 2022), 2023

This article should be read closely and in conjunction to S. C. Todd's article in the same volume. It concerns the origo of a deeply contested concept and existential question: is there a Greek law or Greek laws issued by the various Greek poleis?

EDIT: Irealize that there hasn't been enough time for people to participate in the session before it expired. I would still appreciate any feedback that came to me via internal messaging or email. ----------- Here I present a translation of the so-called “general part” of my doctoral thesis “Altgriechische Gesetze” (2010), which is linked to on this same profile page, as well as part 3, titled “Ausblick”. This parts contain the bulk of the argument, without the detailed commentary on ten selected inscriptions from the Archaic era that bolsters it (part 2 of the original). I plan on adding that commentary later, either in a separate file or as part of a revised and enlarged version of the present one. The translation contains references to the original dissertation, which is referred to as “AP” followed by the number of the chapter in question (e.g. “2.3.1.”). There are also some significant additions; for instance, I have written a new introduction, and the actual translation begins only on p. 4. The most important insertion, however, is the chapter “The Lawgivers as Arbitrators” (p. 62-72), where I deal with a specific set of differences between the process of legislation in Archaic Greece and the ones we are familiar with, differences that seem to call into question my equation of archaic statutes with contracts or agreements. Any feedback is more than welcome! Content: P.1: Introduction P.14: Covenants in Ancient Greece P. 62: The Lawgivers as Arbitrators P. 73: Statutes in Classical Greece P. 83: Bibliography

2011

The book contains a comprehensive bibliography of scholarship on ancient Greek law during the archaic and classical periods from the 7th to the 4th century B.C. The purpose of the project was to bring together, in one place, the entire body of scholarship in the field in order to facilitate further research in ancient Greek law.

P. Dresch and H. Skoda (eds.), Legalism: Anthropology and History, 2012

This opening chapter discusses two interconnected topics. First, it examines how the vocabulary of law, right, and justice (such terms as Latin lex, ius and iura, iustitia, regulum, and Greek nomos, nomimon, thesmos, dike, dikaios, philanthropa) was used in Hellenistic and Roman legal and administrative practice (both ‘governmental’ and ‘non-governmental’), and what kinds of rules and regulations were actually issued and enforced by imperial and royal governments, local communities, and private associations. Secondly, it considers the extent to which modern attempts to understand law and justice and to classify types of legal rules can properly be applied to Roman and Hellenistic material circa 300 BC -- AD 250. This bears a superficial resemblance to the old search for a ‘spirit of Roman law’ (von Jhering’s Geist des römischen Rechts, 1852 onward) or to analyses of the principles of Roman jurisprudence (most notably Schulz’s Principles of Roman Law, 1936), but the aim here is in fact quite different. It is neither to establish the underlying ‘mindset’ nor to unpack ideas about what is just, which Roman jurists supposedly did not quite articulate themselves, but instead to understand the significance in practice of terms such as ‘law’ and ‘justice’, and to compare this with modern terminology and modern concepts. Even though (or, perhaps, because) European thinking about law and justice grew largely out of Romanist theory, it often imposes unhelpful preconceptions. The anthropologist’s concerns with ‘translating culture’ deserve more prominence. Whilst thinking of ancient law in the categories developed by the German nineteenth-century Pandektistik is now widely criticized, no systematic attempt has so far been made to deal in other terms with concepts of law implied in Roman and Hellenistic legal practice. The applicability, or otherwise, of more recent attempts to grasp ancient law through concepts of law, justice, and rules of conduct drawn from legal philosophy and anthropology also remains largely unexplored. The chapter concentrates on the Hellenistic and Roman period, to about AD 250, for which the ideas of legal thinkers can be compared with abundant (if rather unevenly spread) documentary material from different regions of the Graeco-Roman world. This is of particular comparative interest for historians dealing with other periods and settings and for anthropologists, since during the Hellenistic period we can explore understandings of ‘law’ and ‘rules’ at many different levels, from empire to village or trade association, rather than just at the city-state level characteristic of the preceding age.

Journal of Ancient Civilizations 33/2, 2018

Law is a key factor of understanding ancient societies. Though studies on law have often, and for a long time, been undertaken by legal historians, mainly in Law Departments, they did not substantially affect historical studies. This is particularly due to specific terminologies and frameworks of ancient laws, and modern attempts to systematize ancient legal cultures in a mere juristic sphere, rather than to look at the respective historical context. The present survey offers new perspectives on, and approaches to, understanding the mutual interdependencies between law and the respective ancient society. Experts present theoretical and methodological considerations, recently discussed models and newly published research literature that might shape our understanding of ancient legal cultures in the next decades. In part 1, Sven Günther offers introductory remarks and examines some new trends in Roman Law Studies while Edward M. Harris comprehensively guides readers to recent developments in Greek Law Studies.

This chapter explores the importance of writing in the legal practices of the Greek poleis. After discussing writing materials and kinds of documents, illustrating the different functions documents on the same media could have and the problems in tracing ancient archives and reconstructing the role they played in the mechanisms of public administration, it concentrates on two case studies: written records concerning land transactions (in particular registers of sales) and the role of written documents in Athenian judicial procedures. It argues that the impact of written documents on the legal sphere and in establishing fair social relations within the polis was much more significant than is generally recognized.