Disputes and Democracy : The Consequences of Litigation in Ancient Athens

by: Johnstone, S.

Price: 28,17 EURO

1 copy in stock

Athenians performed democracy daily in their law courts. Without lawyers or judges, private citizens, acting as accusers and defendants, argued their own cases directly to juries composed typically of 201 to 501 jurors, who voted on a verdict without deliberation. This legal system strengthened and perpetuated democracy as Athenians understood it, for it emphasized the ideological equality of all (male) citizens and the hierarchy that placed them above women, children, and slaves. This study uses Athenian court speeches to trace the consequences for both disputants and society of individuals' decisions to turn their quarrels into legal cases. Steven Johnstone describes the rhetorical strategies that prosecutors and defendants used to persuade juries and shows how these strategies reveal both the problems and the possibilities of language in the Athenian courts. He argues that Athenian "law" had no objective existence outside the courts and was, therefore, itself inherently rhetorical. This daring new interpretation advances an understanding of Athenian democracy that is not narrowly political, but rather links power to the practices of a particular institution

Authoritative readings
Law and narrative
Dare or truth
Conjuring character
Certain rituals
Litigation and Athenian culture

Subjects:
15.51 Antiquity
86.09 administration of justice
Athen
Droit Grèce Athènes (Grèce) Histoire
Droit Grèce Athènes Histoire
Droit Grèce Athènes History
Droit grec
Greece Athens
Griechenland
Griekse oudheid
History
Law
Law Greece Athens History
Law, Greek
Law, Greek Greece Athens
Procedure (Greek law)
Procedure (Greek law) Greece Athens
Procedure (Law)
Procedure (Law) Greece Athens History
Procédure (Droit grec)
Procédure (Droit) Grèce Athène Histoire
Procédure (Droit) Grèce Athènes Histoire
Procédure (droit) Grèce Athènes (Grèce) Histoire
Prozessrecht
Rechtspleging
Rechtsprechung
Retorica
Strafverfahren
Verfahrensrecht
Zivilprozess

xiv, 207 pages ; 23 cm

Disputes and Democracy : The Consequences of Litigation in Ancient Athens

by: Johnstone, S.

• ISBN-13: 9780292740532 / 978-0-292-74053-2
• ISBN-03: 0292740530 / 0-292-74053-0
• University of Texas Press, Austin, 1999

Price: 28,17 EURO

1 copy in stock