Making law grip: Inequality, injustice, and legal remedy in Solonian Attica and ancient Israel

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Abstract / Description of output

This chapter explores how different was archaic Greece from its Eastern Mediterranean neighbours by analysing social problems and legal responses to these problems in two regions of the archaic Eastern Mediterranean: Attica and Israel. Debt and enslavement for debt was a notable problem in Solon’s Attica. In one law Solon established a limit on the amount of land a single person could acquire. One of the striking features of the history of Greek law and adjudication is its progress from corruptible, elite-dominated trials of the early archaic period to the popular courts of the classical period, which were elaborately organised to prevent bribery. Faced social ills, individuals in Greece and Israel conceived some strikingly similar legal solutions, including structural innovations to the machinery of justice that were designed to improve the chances of these laws gaining grip in real-life cases.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationViolence and Community
Subtitle of host publicationLaw, Space and Identity in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean World
EditorsIoannis K. Xydopoulos, Kostas Vlassopoulos, Eleni Tounta
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter2
Pages28-49
Number of pages22
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781315548159
ISBN (Print)9781472448323, 9780367595180
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 May 2017

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