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Law's Cosmos: Juridical Discourse in Athenian Forensic Oratory

Hardback

Main Details

Title Law's Cosmos: Juridical Discourse in Athenian Forensic Oratory
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Victoria Wohl
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:376
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 154
Category/GenreWorld history - BCE to c 500 CE
ISBN/Barcode 9780521110747
ClassificationsDewey:340.538
Audience
Professional & Vocational

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 7 January 2010
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Recent literary-critical work in legal studies reads law as a genre of literature, noting that Western law originated as a branch of rhetoric in classical Greece and lamenting the fact that the law has lost its connection to poetic language, narrative, and imagination. But modern legal scholarship has paid little attention to the actual juridical discourse of ancient Greece. This book rectifies that neglect through an analysis of the courtroom speeches from classical Athens, texts situated precisely at the intersection between law and literature. Reading these texts for their subtle literary qualities and their sophisticated legal philosophy, it proposes that in Athens' juridical discourse literary form and legal matter are inseparable. Through its distinctive focus on the literary form of Athenian forensic oratory, Law's Cosmos aims to shed new light on its juridical thought, and thus to change the way classicists read forensic oratory and legal historians view Athenian law.

Author Biography

Victoria Wohl is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Toronto. Her previously published work includes Love Among the Ruins: The Erotics of Democracy in Classical Athens (2002) and Intimate Commerce: Exchange, Gender, and Subjectivity in Greek Tragedy (1998).