Law, Violence, and Community in Classical Athens
David Cohen, P. A. Cartledge (Editor), P. D. GarnseyBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
This book examines the legal regulation of violence and the role of litigation in Athenian society. Using comparative anthropological and historical perspectives, David Cohen challenges traditional evolutionary and functionalist accounts of the development of legal process. Examining Athenian theories of social conflict and the rule of law, as well as actual litigation involving the regulation of violence, the book emphasizes the way in which the judicial process operates in an agonistic society.
Synopsis
This book examines the legal regulation of violence and the role of litigation in Athenian society.
Booknews
Cohen (rhetoric, U. of California-Berkeley) brings comparative anthropological and historical perspectives to bear on the legal regulation of violence and the role of litigation in Athenian society. Challenging traditional evolutionary and functionalist accounts of the development of the legal process, he finds that both judges and litigants viewed the courts as a competitive arena where ongoing conflicts are played out, continued, and exacerbated according to a logic characteristic of feuding societies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)