BOOK: Emiliano Jerónimo BUIS, Taming Ares: Interstate Law, and Humanitarian Discourse in Classical Greece [Legal History Library/Studies in the History of International Law, vol. 26/10; ed. Randall LESAFFER] (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2018), ISBN 978-90-04-36382-3, € 125

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Book abstract:

In Taming Ares Emiliano J. Buis examines the sources of classical Greece to challenge both the state-centeredness of mainstream international legal history and the omnipresence of war and excessive violence in ancient times. Making ample use of epigraphic as well as literary, rhetorical, and historiographical sources, the book offers the first widespread account of the narrative foundations of the (il)legality of warfare in the classical Hellenic world. In a clear yet sophisticated manner, Buis convincingly proves that the traditionally neglected study of the performance of ancient Greek poleis can contribute to a better historical understanding of those principles of international law underlying the practices and applicable rules on the use of force and the conduct of hostilities.

On the author:

Emiliano Jerónimo Buis, PhD in Classics and Postdoctoral Degree in Law (Universidad de Buenos Aires) is Professor of International Law and Ancient Greek at that university and at UNICEN, as well as researcher at the CONICET in Argentina. He has widely published on the theory and history of international law, ancient Greek literature (especially drama) and Athenian law.

Table of contents:

Foreword   Randall Lesaffer Preliminary Considerations Acknowledgments List of Figures and Maps Introduction  1  Between Ares and Athena  2  In-between Custom and Convenience: Analyzing the Restrictive Discourse of War  3  Towards International Law in the Ancient World: Practices and Contexts  4  Inhumane Acts, Human Words: Analyzing the Restrictive Discourse of War

Part 1: The Concepts

1 Normativity, Hegemony, and Democratic Performance: The Case of Classical Athens  1  International Normativity, Subordination, and Political Imposition in the Ancient World  2  Justice, Law, Laws and Decrees: The Issue of Terminology  3  Nomothesia: The Act of Legislating  4  Dramatic Competitions and Athenian Festivals  5 Justice as Spectacle in Athens: Judicial praxis  6  The Assembly, the Theater, and the Courts: Performative Activities of Democracy   Summation: Democracy as Performative Ritual 2 Greek poleis and Their International Subjectivity  1  Towards an Archaeology of the Subject: Did Legal Entities Have a Legal Personality in the Greek World?  2  The Role of the polis in the Signing of Treaties during the Peloponnesian War   Summation: International Subjectivity in Ruins

Part 2: The Rules

3 Ius ad bellum and Its Limits on Inter-polis Law  1  The Rhetoric of the Use of Armed Force in the Greek World  2  The Vocabulary of the Grounds: The Spoken and the Unspoken in Thucydides  3  Considerations on Guilt, Responsibility, Motivation and Encouraging: Helen’s Case  4  Exoneration from the Attack: The Adversary’s Responsibility  5  A ‘Legal’ Rhetoric of Self-Defense?   Summation: Restraining the Use of Armed Force 4 Ius in bello and Its Limits in Inter-polis Law  1  Greek Warfare between Military Necessity and Limitation  2  The Legal Matrix: The Foundations of “Common,” “Universal,” Inter-polis, and Intra-Hellenic Law  3  Geneva in Greece: The nomos of the Greeks with Respect to the Protection of Victims and Practices in Wartime: Humanitarian Limits?  4  The Hague in Greece: The nomos of the Greeks with Respect to the Restriction of Means and Methods of Warfare: Humanitarian Limits?  5 Responding to Atrocity: Prosecution of War Crimes?   Summation: Towards a Framework of Restraint Conclusions: About Apples, Branches, and Humanitarian Strategies Appendix A: Chart of Treaties Signed by Greek poleis during the Peloponnesian War (431–404) Appendix B: Digital Images of Treaties and Decrees Bibliography  1 Ancient Sources (Critical Apparatus of Greek Texts, Translations and Comments)  2 Critical Bibliography  3  Instrumenta studiorum Index

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