Skip to content

Adriaan Lanni, Athenian Law, in The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine & Sabine R. Huebner eds., Blackwell 2013).


Abstract: Contemporary common-law jurisdictions employ the doctrine of binding precedent, that is, the requirement that courts follow legal rules announced in prior decisions rendered by courts of equal or higher rank. Classical Athens had no notion of binding precedent, but litigants in the surviving court speeches frequently refer to past court verdicts in making their arguments.