INTRODUCTION: LAW, THEORY, AND POLITICS

In the modern world law plays a major role in theoretical writing about politics. This is especially true in the United States, where prominent judges write political philosophy and political theorists actively seek to influence judicial interpretation of constitutional law. Although no formal body of expert writing about law comparable either to American constitutional jurisprudence or to the great corpora of the Roman Jurists developed in Greece, normative and evaluative reflections on law-making and judicial practice appear early in Greek literature. By the late classical period, jurisprudence, in the extended sense of “philosophical writing about law” was a feature of Athenian political theorizing and litigants in Athenian courts made jurisprudential arguments to mass juries. The practice of law and the development of political theory were closely intertwined within the Greek experience; showing how they became intertwined reveals distinctive features of Greek law and political theory alike.