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ETHICS & POLITICS, ANCIENT & MODERN
Sara Forsdyke (University of Michigan, Classics)
Friday April 12, 2013 | 03:15 -05:00 PM | 90

Title: Rule of Law, Popular Justice and the Politics of Interpreting the Past.

Abstract:

This paper asks how the Athenian democracy theorized and practiced
justice. Some scholars (e.g., M.H. Hansen, G.Herman, E. Harris) have
emphasized the importance of the rule of law and legal process under
the Athenian democracy, while others (D. Cohen, V. Hunter, A. Lanni)
have put stress on the ways that the Athenians deviated from modern
notions of legal reasoning and legal process. One reason that the
debate is unresolved is that both sides have considerable justice in
their views.

How, then, are we to characterize Athenian attitudes to justice?
Should we think in terms of dichotomies such as the rule of law vs.
popular justice, formal law vs. informal social practices, or
state-sanctioned violence vs. self-help? Using some striking examples
from the Athenian judicial system, this paper will explore the
complexities of the classical Athenian notion of justice and argue
that an account of justice in classical Athens needs to acknowledge
the coexistence of contradictory (from a modern perspective) elements
in a single judicial system. Finally, this paper will reflect on why
scholars are so invested in placing classical Athens on one side or
the other of this interpretative divide.

Commentator: James Kierkstead (PhD Stanford Classics)