the legal profession in ancient athens 343 rule were heard by the Board of the Forty; criminal cases, except homicide and sacrilege, were tried before the Thesmo-
Nov 12, 2006 · Around 620 BC a law giver with dictatorial powers, named Draco, the lawgiver, wrote the first known written law of Ancient Greece. His laws became known for their cruelty as “draconian” and indeed, death was punishment for the majority of crime, including even the most pity theft. In contrast, this law established exile as the penalty for ...
JURY SELECTION, TRIAL BY JURY: To be on a jury, you had to be a citizen. You had to be over 30 years of age. You had to swear that you would be fair to both sides. You did get paid. Juries were selected from volunteers. The number of jurors could be huge. Some trials had as many as 500 jurors who had volunteered to judge a case.
The law courts in ancient Athens were a fundamental organ of democratic governance. According to Aristotle, whoever controls the courts controls the state. These courts were jury courts and very large ones: the smallest possible had 200 members and sometimes 501, 1000 or 1500. The annual pool of jurors, whose official name was Heliaia, comprised 6000 members. …
Owing to the many public services they had rendered to the republic, a few lawyers in Athens, no doubt, gradually acquired some influence in the affairs of the City or in transactions before the courts.
In the Athenian legal system, there were no professional lawyers, though well-known speechwriters such as Demosthenes composed speeches which were delivered by, or on behalf of others. These speechwriters have been described as being as close as a function of a modern lawyer as the Athenian legal system would permit.
The Athenian law court was large and decisions were made by majority. The courts could also exile those from society who were gaining too much power and could become tyrants.
legal system great political importance, the whole hēliaia (i.e., the popular assembly organized as a court of 6,001 men) was convened. Normally sections of the hēliaia (specifically called dikastēria), composed of 1,501, 1,001, or 501 men in criminal cases and 201 men in civil cases, were charged with the decision.
Because they were run by amateurs, the courts were often very chaotic. Those individuals presenting the cases were not professional lawyers so they sometimes tried to appeal to the jury's emotions rather than the specifics of the law. Juries were often out of control.
The ancient Greek world had no single system of law; individual states instead formed their own political and legal systems, although these were arguably based largely on the same general principles.Apr 12, 2022
Laws were passed through a process called nomothesia (νομοθεσία) or “legislation.” Each year the Assembly met to discuss the current body of laws. Any citizen could propose a change in the laws, but could only propose the repeal of a law if he suggested another law to replace the repealed law.
the agoraReprinted with permission.) The trial of Socrates took place over a nine-to-ten hour period in the People's Court, located in the agora, the civic center of Athens. The jury consisted of 500 male citizens over the age of thirty, chosen by lot from among volunteers.
The traditions of Athens and Sparta say that the laws were given to them by Solon and Lycurgus, legendary figures who served as leaders of their city-states long ago. The two traditions agree that the laws are made by the Assembly and approved by the Senate. These laws, then, are made by people, not gods.Apr 7, 2022
Athens had a highly democratic legal system. Legislation was enacted by an Assembly open to all citizens, laws were written and publicly displayed, plaintiffs and defendants pleaded their own cases, and trials were judged by juries of 200 or more. Private disputes first went to arbitration.
Athens was the largest and most influential of the Greek city-states. It had many fine buildings and was named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare. The Athenians invented democracy, a new type of government where every citizen could vote on important issues, such as whether or not to declare war.
The jury consisted of 500 male citizens over the age of thirty, chosen by lot from among volunteers. Athens used very large numbers of jurors, from 500 to as many as 1501, in part as a protection against bribes: who could afford to bribe 500 people?
This concerns virtually all the material and spiritual aspects, including philosophy, politics, culture and law. As regards the latter, law of ancient Greece represents us the first example of attempt to approach to law impartially on the basis ...
Ancient Greeks managed to develop an own original system of laws and punishment, which differed dramatically from the earlier samples. Among their inventions one can name a rejection of talion principles, establishing the grounds for independent court system and division of law into separate branches, as well as development of procedural regulations. However, there was little difference between laws and social rules, and laws were rather means to set such rules, so ancient Athens can be called a proto legal society, but not the legal one.
And this era has been launched by the Solon reforms in early VI century BC.
The decline of classical Greece started in early IV century BC after wasteful civil strives and rise of Macedonia. Greeks now strived to conserve that, what they already possessed, and this concerned the legal system as well as all other fields of their activity. Certain changes did occur in the court system with the emergence of Dikastic Courts, with universal jurisdiction to hear every kind of case. They had power to decide both facts and law, and to pass sentence on the party/parties involved.
Greeks believed, that dangerous freethinking insulted each and every of them, and so many of the philosophers, who later formed the pride of Greece, had to pass through criminal procedure and punishment. Socrates, who has been convicted to death by poisoning, was the most famous of them.
Dark ages in the history of Greece lasted from 1200 to 900 BC. Ancient Greeks at the time had no official laws or punishments and the principle of talion dominated in law. Murders were settled by members of the victim's family, who had a right to kill the murderer, which often resulted in endless blood feuds, similar to later Italian vendettas.
In the USA today, a defendant can choose to have a judge rather than a jury trial. But the right to trial by jury is the right of every American citizen. When a jury trial is selected, here's how it works: 1 Jury Selection. It is very citizens obligation to serve on a jury if called to do so. For jury trials, there are 6-12 jurors. Jurors are paid, very little, but they are paid around $10 a day plus mileage. To be on a jury, you have to be a citizen of the US, 18 or older, and you cannot be a convicted felon whose right to be a juror has been taken away. 2 After a jury has been selected, the jury hears opening statement by the attorneys. Then evidence is presented. There are closing arguments by the attorneys. Jury instruction is given by the judge. And the jurors are moved to a private room to discuss their decision among themselves. Once a jury reaches a decision, they go back into court and give their decision to the judge. In some types of trials, punishment is decided by the judge. In others, a jury decides it, but a judge can overrule their punishment if he or she thinks it is unreasonable or illegal.
The other side suggested death as punishment. Socrates, who found the charges against him ridiculous, suggested his fine be one piece of silver. He knew the jury would be angered by that. If Socrates had suggested a stronger punishment, the jury probably would have voted for it. But he left them little choice.
For jury trials, there are 6-12 jurors. Jurors are paid, very little, but they are paid around $10 a day plus mileage. To be on a jury, you have to be a citizen of the US, 18 or older, and you cannot be a convicted felon whose right to be a juror has been taken away.
In the USA today, a defendant can choose to have a judge rather than a jury trial. But the right to trial by jury is the right of every American citizen. When a jury trial is selected, here's how it works: Jury Selection. It is very citizens obligation to serve on a jury if called to do so.
After a jury has been selected, the jury hears opening statement by the attorneys. Then evidence is presented. There are closing arguments by the attorneys. Jury instruction is given by the judge. And the jurors are moved to a private room to discuss their decision among themselves.
The Athenians had a way to remove or exile a person from society if they had gained too much power to prevent tyranny. It was not entirely successful in preventing tyrants though. On a certain day in the winter, citizens would come and they had the opportunity to exile an individual. There were ten gates in the Agora, the main building, each gate for a different tribe. The people would come and write a name on an ostracism. If over six thousand ostracism had the same name on them the person would have to leave Athens within ten days. There have been archeology findings that have uncovered many of the shards of ostracism.
The decisions of the courts were not originally based on laws. They came from the injured party trying to compensate for their loss. Around 621 BC, under the rule of Dracon, the first written laws came about. He was a reformer who made the first written laws and the laws were considered very harsh. The word draconian came about from these laws which often gave out death as a punishment even for small crimes. Dracon felt that people guilty of small infractions of the law deserved the death penalty. There also came about a distinction of Athenians from all others with his reforms as, “murdering a non-Athenian, for instance, incurred a lesser penalty.” These laws did not last long, not because they led to the rebellion of the people outraged over them, but because of the gap between rich and poor. Different families were quarreling and the rich were only concerned with having the poor pay the debt they owed and the poor were concerned with repaying the debt.15 People then turned to Solon to make the changes because he, “owed no one and no one owed Solon anything.” He was given almost complete control over the process and both sides appealed to him to help them. Solon canceled all of the debts the poor owed and did other things to solve the problem. He also implemented legal reforms, the biggest of which he got rid of Draco's laws except for those about murder. Solon also allowed for the poor to be members of the jury, also, any male could bring forth a case. The laws the Solon made were numerous and covered all parts of life and society.