Law, Violence, and Community in Classical Athens

The theme of this book is 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, he emphasises the way in which the judicial process operates in an agonistic social field. This perspective illuminates the social dimensions of litigation and the legal regulation of violence, and helps to explain otherwise puzzling features of Athenian litigation.

• David Cohen is the author of our Law, Sexuality, and Society • Author brings anthropological perspectives to bear on subject of Athenian law • Author sees litigation in Athenian society as a judicial enactment of what in other societies would be the feud

Preface; Part I. The Realm of Theory: 1. Law and order; 2. Theorising Athenian society: the problem of stability; 3. Theorising Athenian society: the rule of law; Part II. The Realm of the Courts: 4. Rhetoric, litigation and the values of an agonistic society; 5. Litigation as feud; 6. Violence and litigation; 7. Hubris and the legal regulation of sexual violence; 8. Litigation and the family; Conclusion: litigation, democracy and the courts; Bibliographical essay; Bibliography; Index.