SYMPOSIUM: Ancient Criminal Law: A Global Perspective (Youtube, crimlrev.net, 24 JUN 2026)

(iamge source: MCRL)

Join us for an international workshop featuring contributors to our forthcoming Modern Criminal Law Review Special Issue on “Ancient Criminal Law: A Global Perspective,” guest edited by Clifford Ando (University of Chicago).

Participants include:

• Clifford Ando, University of Chicago (moderator)
• Beth Berkowitz, Columbia University
• Ari Bryen, Vanderbilt University
• Ernest Caldwell, St. Mary’s, London
• Benjamin Gallant, Harvard University
• Adriaan Lanni, Harvard University
• Mark Letteney, University of Washington
• Seth Richardson, University of Chicago
• Andrew Wolpert, University of Florida

June 24, 2026 @ 12pm (ET)

► To join us for this free online event, please register here. Registration is encouraged, but not required; if you prefer to join the event directly, head over to the MCLR+ YouTube channel at the time of the event (please note the time zone). All attendees will have the opportunity to post questions and comments via YouTube live chat.

► To stay informed about upcoming MCLR+ events, publications, and projects, please sign up for the MCLR+ mailing list and check the MCLR+ website; to receive notifications about upcoming livestreams, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

(source: Legal History Blog)

BOOK: Clifford ANDO, Mirko CANEVARO & Benjamin STRAUMANN (eds.), The Cambridge History of Rights, vol.I: The Ancient World [The Cambridge History of Rights, eds. Nehal BHUTA, Anthony PAGDEN & Mira L. SIEGELBERG] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026), ISBN 9781108837354, 120 GBP

 

(image source: CUP)

Abstract:

The ancient world existed before the modern conceptual and linguistic apparatus of rights, and any attempts to understand its place in history must be undertaken with care. This volume covers not only Greco-Roman antiquity, but ranges from the ancient Near East to early Confucian China; Deuteronomic Judaism to Ptolemaic Egypt; and rabbinic Judaism to Sasanian law. It describes ancient normative conceptions of personhood and practices of law in a way that respects their historical and linguistic particularity, appreciating the distinctiveness of the cultures under study whilst clarifying their salience for comparative study. Through thirteen expertly researched essays, volume one of The Cambridge History of Rights is a comprehensive and authoritative reference for the history of rights in the global ancient world and highlights societies that the field has long neglected.

Table of contents:

Introduction Clifford Ando, Mirko Canevaro and Benjamin Straumann

• 1. To claim to protect claims: the generative discourse of Mesopotamian legal rights Seth Richardson
• 2. The individual and the communal: early Confucian resources for human rights May Sim
• 3. human rights in the Hebrew Bible? Sandra Jacobs
• 4. Greek subjective rights? Justice, legal discourse, and legal institutions Mirko Canevaro and Linda Rocchi
• 5. Aristotle on subjective rights Pia Campeggiani
• 6. Do rights exist in Hellenistic philosophy? Jon Miller
• 7. Rights in Ptolemaic Egypt Nadine Grotkamp
• 8. Rights in Roman Republican thought Valentina Arena
• 9. Ius in the subjective sense in classical Roman law Charles Donahue, Jr
• 10. Rights and dignity in late ancient thought Kyle Harper
• 11. Rights in late ancient law? Noel Lenski
• 12. Rabbinic Judaism Alyssa M. Gray
• 13. Sasanian law Maria Macuch.

Read more here: DOI 10.1017/9781108938938

 

BOOK: Benjamin STRAUMANN, The Just State: Greek and Roman Theories of Justice and Their Legacy in Western Thought (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2025), ISBN 978-1-118-63468-4, 288 p., 85 USD

 

(image source: Wiley)

Abstract:

The Just State explores influential Greek and Roman ideas about justice and their institutional context, and discusses their legacy in later political thought. Bringing Greco-Roman and modern ideas into conversation with each other, Benjamin Straumann traces the history of ancient political thought by focusing on classical ideas about justice. With a readable narrative style, Straumann places Greek and Roman theories of justice in their historical context, starting from Homer and the pre-Socratic period through to the later Roman Empire, and outlines the respective contribution of the Greek and Roman traditions of thinking about justice to early modern and Enlightenment political thought. Concise chapters address Athenian democracy, the Sophist movement, the political philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, the origins of constitutionalism in the Roman Republic, classical influences on the American and French revolutions, and more.

Table of contents:

Preface and Acknowledgments x

Maps and Figures xi

Abbreviations and Text Editions xii

Introduction: Why Greeks and Romans? Why Ideas? 1

The Gradual Encroachment of Ideas 2

Why Greeks and Romans? 5

The Use and Energy of Ideas and Concepts 10

The Cult of Contingency, or: Is Everything Constructed? 12

Overview of Contents 13

Part I The Greek Debate 15

1 The Polis, Equality, and the Growth of Political Thought 17

The World of Homer’s Poems and the Emergence of Greek Political Life 17

Hesiod’s Justice 23

The Ancient Near Eastern Context 25

The Polis and Greek Colonization 27

A Mere Spider’s Web? Solon and the Rise of Written Law 31

2 Athenian Democracy, Early Antidemocratic and Democratic Thought, and the Sophist Movement 38

The Historical Background: Athenian Democracy in Practice in the Fifth Century 42

Antidemocratic Sentiment and Early Elements of Democratic Theory 45

Accountability 47

The Sophists 50

3 Knowledge, Paternalistic Justice, and Law: Plato 56

The Republic, a Theory of Justice? 56

The Ideal State: Women, Communism, Rule of Reason 59

Plato and Democracy 64

Plato, the Law and the Laws 70

4 The State as Teacher: Aristotle 78

The Unity of Politics and Ethics 78

Aristotle’s Criticism of Plato and His Views on Women and Slavery 80

Justice and the Classification of Constitutions 85

Is Aristotle’s Best State Just? 91

The Second-Best: Democracy, Law, and Rights in Aristotle’s Politics 93

Aristotle and Liberalism 101

5 The Epicurean Contract and Stoic Natural Law 103

Epicurean Ideas about Justice as Contract 103

The Stoics on Ethics and Politics 108

What Goods Are Relevant? 109

Stoic Antipolitics? 110

Egalitarianism and Cosmopolitanism 111

A New Idea: Natural Law 113

Did the Stoics Have the Concept of Rights? 115

Conclusion 116

Part II The Roman Contribution 119

6 The Roman Republic and the Origins of Constitutionalism 121

Institutional Background: The Popular Assemblies 122

Institutional Background: The Magistrates and the Right of Appeal 126

Institutional Background: The Senate 130

Criminal Courts 131

Constitutional Conflict and the Emergence of Constitutionalism 132

Polybius on Rome’s Well-Balanced Constitution 137

An Ambassador Conception of Representation 141

The Constitutional Machine Runs Itself (Until It Does Not) 142

Appendix: The Achaean League, an Early Model of Federalism 143

7 Justice, Not Happiness: Cicero’s Roman Political Thought 145

Does this Egalitarian Anthropology Imply the Equality of Women? 147

Cicero’s Theory of the State 148

Cicero’s Constitutionalism 149

A New Theory of Justice? Cicero on the Just State 150

Controlling the State: The State as a Guarantor of Rights 152

Controlling the State: Property Rights and Justice in the Strict Sense 155

Magistrates as Representatives and Fiduciaries 158

Cicero’s Use of the Idea of Natural Law 160

Natural Law and Natural (Even Human?) Rights Outside the State 163

8 The Principate, the Rise of Christianity, and Augustine’s Peace 166

Augustus and the Principate: Autocracy or Legal Order? 166

The Rise of Christianity 174

Lactantius 177

Ambrose 180

The Tranquility of Order: Augustine 182

Just War and Religious Toleration 184

Part III Ancient and Modern Justice: Virtue, Peace, or Rights? 187

9 Greek Justice: Virtue and the Common Good 189

Thomas Aquinas and Aristotelian Theory 191

Property and the Common Good 195

Does the Common Good Imply Justice or Justice the Common Good? 198

The Legacy of Perfectionism 199

10 Roman Justice: Law and Rights 203

The Rediscovery of Roman Law 204

The State of Nature 207

A New Natural Law for the State of Nature 210

Sovereignty and Government 214

The Roman Tradition in the Eighteenth Century 217

Conclusion: Natural Law and Roman Law 219

11 Ideas in Action: The Atlantic Revolutions 220

The “Real American Revolution” 220

Ancient Founders and American Constitution-Making 228

The French Experience 236

Rousseau, Sparta, and Rome 236

Rights Declarations and Constitutions 240

Implications and Consequences: Slavery, Women, Property 241

Conclusion: The Three Traditions of Virtue, Peace, and Justice 244

Bibliography 250

Index 260

 

On the author:

ERC Professor of History at the University of Zurich and Research Professor of Classics at New York University. He is also Alberico Gentili Senior Fellow at New York University School of Law. His publications include Roman Law in the State of Nature: The Classical Foundations of Hugo Grotius’ Natural Law (Cambridge, 2015) and Crisis and Constitutionalism: Roman Political Thought from the Fall of the Republic to the Age of Revolution (Oxford, 2016).

 Read more here.

BOOK REVIEW: Arduino MAIURI, Laura D’Amati, Dis Manibus (sacrum). La sepoltura nel diritto della Roma pagana (Forum Historiae Iuris 26 SEP 2022) (OPEN ACCESS)

 

(image source: FHI)

Abstract:

Il volume, pregevole nella sua rifinitura e ricco di riferimenti interni, si articola in tre macrosezioni, rispettivamente dedicate a La popolazione dell’oltretomba (pp. 1-26), Il rituale funerario (pp. 27-106) e Il sepulchrum e il locus religiosus (pp. 107-172). Quest’ultima ospita anche Qualche riflessione di sintesi (pp. 169-172), in cui vengono enucleati singoli spunti emersi nello sviluppo del discorso. Un ricco e variegato Indice bibliografico (pp. 173-220), una tavola delle Abbreviazioni (p. 221) ed un Indice delle fonti diviso per tematiche (giuridiche, letterarie ed epigrafiche, pp. 223-230) corredano il testo, garantendone una lettura più agile e documentata.

 Read more here (open access): DOI 10.26032/FHI-2022-009.

PODCAST: Platon ? La République, c'est lui ! (France Culture)

 

(image source: France Culture)

France Culture devoted a podcast series (8 episodes) to Plato's Republic, with -inter alios- the renowned philosopher Alain Badiou.

More information here.

BOOK: Paul J. DU PLESSIS, Borkowski’s Textbook on Roman Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020). ISBN 9780198848011, £39.99

(Source: OUP)

Oxford University Press has published a new edition of Borkowski’s Textbook on Roman Law (6^th), edited by Professor Paul J. Du Plessis.

ABOUT THE BOOK

orkowski's Textbook on Roman Law is the leading contemporary textbook in the field of Roman law, and has been written with undergraduate students firmly in mind. The book provides a clear and highly engaging account of Roman private law and civil procedure, with coverage of all key topics, including the Roman legal system, and the law of persons, property, and obligations.

The book gives a comprehensive overview of both the historical context and modern relevance of Roman law today. Included are references to a wide range of scholarly texts, to ground the judicious account of Roman law firmly in contemporary scholarship. There are also examples from legal practice, as well as truncated timelines at the start of each chapter to illustrate how the law developed over time.

The book contains a wealth of learning features, including chapter summaries, diagrams and maps. A major feature of the book is the inclusion of translated extracts from the most important sources of Roman law: the Digest and the Institutes of Justinian. Annotated further reading sections at the end of each chapter act as a guide to further enquiry.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul J. du Plessis, Professor of Roman Law, University of Edinburgh, School of Law

Paul J. du Plessis holds the chair of Roman law at the University of Edinburgh. He is a legal historian whose research focuses predominantly on the multifaceted and complex set of relationships between law and society in a historical context. His main field of research is Roman law (with specific reference to property, obligations and, to a lesser extent, persons and family). Within this field, he is mainly concerned with the contexts within which law operates and the extent to which modern socio-legal methodologies can be applied to historical material from the Roman period in order to further our understanding of Roman law. To that end, his work is mainly concerned with the formulation of a methodology for 'law and society' research with reference to the Roman Empire. In the context of his interest in law and society, his research also focuses on a further period where Roman legal principles were used to create law, namely the period of the European ius commune in the late Middle Ages.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1: Introduction: Rome - a historical sketch
I. The Roman Legal System
2: The sources of Roman law
3: Roman litigation
II. The Law of Persons
4: Status, slavery and citizenship
5: The Roman family
III. The Law of Property and Inheritance
6: Interests in property
7: Acquiring ownership
8: Inheritance
IV. The Law of Obligations
9: Obligations: general principles and obligations arising from contracts
10: Obligations arising from delict
V. Roman Law and the Modern World
11: Roman law and the European ius commune

More info here

BOOK: Wolfram BRANDES, Alexandra HASSE-UNGEHEUER, and Hartmut LEPPIN, eds., Konzilien und kanonisches Recht in Spätantike und frühem Mittelalter (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020). ISBN 978-3-11-068430-8, €89.95

(Source: De Gruyter)

De Gruyter is publishing a new edited collection on councils and canon law in late antiquity and the early medieval period.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The history of canon law in various Christian cultures (Latin, Greek, Syrian, Coptic) has, with good reason, mostly concentrated on questions of content and organization. In the present volume, however, a comparison is made of the procedures leading to conciliar decisions and thus to the emergence of canon law.

More info here

BOOK: Oliver HEKSTER & Koenraad VERBOVEN (eds.), The Impact of Justice on the Roman Empire Proceedings of the Thirteenth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire [Impact of Empire; 34] (Leiden/New York: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2019), ISBN 978-90-04-40047-4, OPEN ACCESS

(image source: Brill)

Book abstract:

The Impact of Justice on the Roman Empire discusses ways in which notions, practice and the ideology of justice impacted on the functioning of the Roman Empire. The papers assembled in this volume follow from the thirteenth workshop of the international network Impact of Empire. They focus on what was considered just in various groups of Roman subjects, how these views were legitimated, shifted over time, and how they affected policy making and political, administrative, and judicial practices. Linking all of the papers are three common themes: the emperor and justice, justice in a dispersed empire and differentiation of justice.

Bibliographical note:

Olivier Hekster, Radboud University, is professor of Ancient History and chairs the international network Impact of Empire. He has published widely on Roman history, focusing on imperial ideology and Roman emperorship. Koenraad Verboven, University of Ghent, is professor of Ancient History. He specializes in ancient social and economic history, particularly of the Roman world, and has a special interest in monetary history and numismatics, friendship and patronage based networks, guilds (collegia), (neo-)institutional analysis and complexity economics. Contributors are: Olivier Hekster & Koenraad Verboven, Stephane Benoist & Anne Gangloff, Elsemieke Daalder, Francesco Bono, Matthijs Wibier, Juan, Manuel Cortés-Copete, Frédéric Hurlet, Clifford Ando, Peter Herz, Elena Köstner, Pilar Pavón Torrejón, Margherita Carucci.

See table of contents here.

Download the full book here.

INTERVIEW: Prof. dr. Philipp SCHEIBELREITER, "Von antiken Rechtsquellen lernen" (Vienna: Universität Wien, 9 NOV 2018)

(image source: Universität Wien)

At the occasion of his nomination as Professor of Ancient Legal History and Roman Law, the University of Vienna published an interview with our colleague Philipp Scheibelreiter.

Extract:

Können wir aus der Geschichte lernen? Natürlich, sagt Philipp Scheibelreiter, seit März Professor für Antike Rechtsgeschichte und Römisches Recht an der Universität Wien. Zeitlose, dogmatische Argumente und unterschiedliche juristische Lösungsansätze stehen bei seiner Forschung im Mittelpunkt.
Aus der Vergangenheit lernen nicht nur HistorikerInnen, sondern auch JuristInnen. Zumindest, wenn sie sich wie Philipp Scheibelreiter mit der Antiken Rechtsgeschichte und dem Römischen Recht beschäftigen. Für den gebürtigen Wiener, der seit März 2018 Professor an der Rechtswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Uni Wien ist, steht dabei das Zeitlose seines Faches im Vordergrund: "Wir können von der funktionierenden und lebendigen Rechtswissenschaft der römischen Antike viel lernen. Natürlich existierte damals noch keine Rechtsordnung, wie wir sie heutzutage kennen, aber mich interessieren die zeitlosen, dogmatischen Argumentationslinien der römischen Juristen: Wie kamen sie zu einer Entscheidungsfindung? Welche Argumente gebrauchten sie zur Problemlösung und warum?"

Read further here.

BOOK: Gary WATT, Ed., A Cultural History of Law - Volumes 1-6 (London: Bloomsbury, 2018). ISBN 9781474212854, £355.50

(Source: Bloomsbury)

Bloomsbury is publishing a six volumes cultural history of law coming November. The books can be pre-ordered here

ABOUT THE BOOK

How have legal ideas and institutions affected Western culture? And how has the law itself been shaped by its cultural context?

In a work spanning 4,500 years, these questions are addressed by 57 experts, each contributing an authoritative study of a theme applied to a period in history. Supported by detailed case material and over 230 illustrations, the volumes examine trends and nuances of the culture of law in Western societies from antiquity to the present. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six.

The six volumes cover: 1 - Antiquity (2500 BCE-500 CE); 2 - Middle Ages (500-1500); 3 - Early Modern Age (1500-1680); 4 - Age of Enlightenment (1680-1820); 5 - Age of Reform (1820-1920); 6 - Modern Age (1920-present).

Themes (and chapter titles) are: Justice; Constitution; Codes; Agreements; Arguments; Property and Possession; Wrongs; and the Legal Profession.

The total page extent for the pack is approximately 1200 pages. Each volume opens with a Series Preface, an Introduction and Notes on Contributors and concludes with Notes, Bibliography and an Index.

The Cultural Histories Series

A Cultural History of Law is part of the Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com).

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Gary Watt is a Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, and one of the General Editors of Law and Humanities. He was named UK 'Law Teacher of the Year' 2009.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume 1: A Cultural History of Law in Antiquity

Edited by Julen Etxabe, University of Helsinki, Finland

Volume 2: A Cultural History of Law in the Middle Ages

Edited by Emanuele Conte, Roma Tre University, Italy and EHESS, Paris, France and Laurent Mayali, University of California at Berkeley, USA

Volume 3: A Cultural History of Law in the Early Modern Age

Edited by Peter Goodrich, Cardozo School of Law, New York, USA

Volume 4: A Cultural History of Law in the Age of Enlightenment

Edited by Rebecca Probert, University of Exeter, UK and John Snape, University of Warwick, UK

Volume 5: A Cultural History of Law in the Age of Reform

Edited by Ian Ward, Newcastle University, UK

Volume 6: A Cultural History of Law in the Modern Age

Edited by Richard K Sherwin, New York University Law School, USA and Danielle Celermajer, University of Sydney, Australia

More information here

BOOK: Benjamin STRAUMANN, Crisis and Constitutionalism. Roman Political Thought from the Fall of the Republic to the Age of Revolution (Oxford: OUP, 2016), 432 p. ISBN 9780199950928, 64 GBP

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

Crisis and Constitutionalism argues that the late Roman Republic saw, for the first time in the history of political thought, the development of a normative concept of constitutionthe concept of a set of constitutional norms designed to guarantee and achieve certain interests of the individual. Benjamin Straumann first explores how a Roman concept of constitution emerged out of the crisis and fall of the Roman Republic. The increasing use of emergency measures and extraordinary powers in the late Republic provoked Cicero and some of his contemporaries to turn a hitherto implicit, inchoate constitutionalism into explicit constitutional argument and theory. The crisis of the Republic thus brought about a powerful constitutionalism and convinced Cicero to articulate the norms and rights that would provide its substance; this typically Roman constitutional theory is described in the second part of the study. Straumann then discusses the reception of Roman constitutional thought up to the late eighteenth century and the American Founding, which gave rise to a new, constitutional republicanism. This tradition was characterized by a keen interest in the Roman Republics decline and fall, and an insistence on the limits of virtue. The crisis of the Republic was interpreted as a constitutional crisis, and the only remedy to escape the Republic's fate — military despotism — was thought to lie, not in republican virtue, but in Roman constitutionalism. By tracing Roman constitutional thought from antiquity to the modern era, this unique study makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of Roman political thought and its reception.

On the author:

Benjamin Straumann is Alberico Gentili Senior Fellow at New York University School of Law and Lecturer at the University of Zurich. He is the author of Roman Law in the State of Nature and co-editor of the book series The History and Theory of International Law.

Table of contents:

Table of ContentsI. Inchoate Constitutionalism in the Late Roman Republic1. "Not Some Piece of Legislation": The Roman Concept of Constitution2. Infinite Power? Emergencies and Extraordinary Powers in Constitutional Argument3. "The Sole Bulwark of Liberty": Constitutional Rights at RomeII. A Hierarchy of Laws: Roman Constitutional Thought4. Cicero and the Legitimacy of Political Authority5. Greek vs. Roman Constitutional ThoughtIII. The Limits of Virtue: The Roman Contribution to Political Thought6. The Roman Republic as a Constitutional Order from the Principate to the Renaissance7. Neo-Roman Interlude: Machiavelli and the Anti-Constitutional Tradition8. Jean Bodin and the Fall of the Roman RepublicEpilogue: Constitutional Republicanism, the "Cant-Word" Virtue and the American FoundingBibliography

(source: OUP)

LECTURE: Eva-Maria KUHN (Cologne), "God's law, man's lust and church legal affairs in late antiquity" (University of Glasgow, 6 Jun 2018)

(image source: University of Glasgow)

On Wednesday 6 June, Eva-Maria Kuhn  (University of Cologne) will speak on 'God's law, man's lust and church legal affairs in late antiquity'.

How were disputes adjudicated in early Christian communities? What happened at church courts in late antiquity, where bishops presided as judges and arbiters of disciplinary proceedings and civil squabbles? What was the understanding of law, how was Christian law defined in conjunction with, or in opposition to, competing legal regimes, and how was judicial authority defined and effected? A closer look at cases where sexual misconduct was at issue, especially a collection of proceedings before bishop Augustine of Hippo in the early fifth century, provide useful inroads to explore legal practice concerning laity and locals.

The talk will take place at 3.30pm, in Room 207, No. 10, The Square. All are welcome.

Eva-Maria Kuhn is the Alan Rodger Postgraduate Visiting Researcher in the University of Glasgow Law School for 2017/18.

(source: University of Glasgow)

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

(image source: Brill)

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

More information with Brill.