Greek Law in Its Political Setting : Justifications Not Justice

A fascinating exploration of the tension between law and politics, justice and justification, in the history of ancient Greece - presented here as a collection of essays by a distinguished team of both law and ancient history scholars. The book shows clearly how law and politics are inevitably linked together, not only in ancient Greece, but indeed in every modern society.

This volume explores the way in which law integrated with other aspects of life in ancient Greece. The papers collected here reveal a number of different pathways between law and political, social, and economic life in Greek societies. Emanating from several scholarly traditions, they offer a range of contrasting but complementary insights rarely collected together. What emerges clearly is that law in Greece only takes on its full meaning in a broadly political context. Dynamic tensions govern the relationships between this semi-autonomous legal arena and other spheres of life. An ideology of equality before the law was juxtaposed with a practical reality of individuals'' unequal abilities to cope with it. It is hard to draw firm lines between the settlement of cases in court and the spill-over of legal actions into the agora, the streets, the fields, and the houses. Hence it is hardly surprising if justice can all too easily give way to justification.