A few years ago Giorgio Israel published a penetrating study on the relationship between Science and Race in Fascist Italy in which, referring to the anti-Jewish legislation adopted by the Fascist regime in 1938, he explained how academic culture not only lent scientific and doctrinal credence to racism through the works of outstanding intellectuals such as Nicola Pende, Sabato Visco, Giuseppe Maggiore and Giacomo Acerbo, but also took advantage of “the positions made available for an ‘indecent’ promotion”.

This historical image is completely at variance with the description given by journalist Indro Montanelli who denied that “academia of that period was heartened by the racial laws, considering them a way to get new posts and promotions”. He claimed that “the academic culture did not support those laws either doctrinally or scientifically” and considered Prof. Israel's arguments superficial and groundless.

The longest Elephantine contract is the “document of wifehood” (spr ʾntw) drawn up between Ananiah son of Haggai and Zaccur son of Meshullam. Numbering forty-five lines and measuring 30 cm wide by 92 cm high, it had been cut apart at the time of acquisition and was painstakingly put together, like a jigsaw puzzle, over a long period of time and in stages, both in 1949 by Anthony Giambalvo of the Department of Egyptian Art of the Brooklyn Museum and almost forty years later, in February, 1987, by Porten and Ada Yardeni. It was first published by Emil G. Kraeling in 1953 and then in 1989 by Porten and Yardeni with handcopy. The contract stipulated the terms, rights and obligations, and pecuniary consequences attendant upon the marriage of Ananiah to Jehoishma daughter of Anani son of Azariah and his wife Tamet (TAD B3.4:18), formerly handmaiden of Meshullam father of Zaccur (TAD B3.3:3, 3.6:2-4). As successor to Meshullam's estate, Zaccur possessed residual rights to Jehoishma and her mother Tamet (TAD B3.6:11-15). Since Zaccur provided the dowry and relinquished some of his rights to Jehoishma, it is with him and not with Jehoishma's natural father (Anani son of Azariah) that the contract was drawn up.

Recognition of liability in negligence for personal injury, whether physical or psychiatric, is a question of public policy par excellence. In English tort law, public policy is a transparent judicial requirement in fixing liability even when negligence is established otherwise. In considering the tortious liability of a local authority to children in its care, the English House of Lords has, in obiter dicta, raised doubts as a matter of public policy concerning the enforceability of claims for damages by children against a parent for emotional neglect causing psychiatric injury. In Israel, by contrast, the Supreme Court recently extended tortious liability by enforcing the parental duty of care to children through a claim for psychiatric injury. So far Israeli law is unique in this development. Variations in judicial policy concerning the recognition of claims by children for psychiatric injury are considered here, in the contexts of English tort law, and Israeli, US and European human rights law.

To prevent any misunderstanding, I first would like to clarify that I am not a historian dealing with classical studies; my main disciplines are philosophy and law. However, following a seminar I gave dealing with several philosophical-legal aspects of Greek tragedy, and an article I wrote about the relationship between the concept of guilt in Oedipus Tyrannus and the principle of strict liability in modern criminal law, I have found myself in recent years becoming increasingly interested in the unique culture which emerged in Athens during the classical period, particularly in the 5th century BCE. In the course of that century, Athens was involved in many wars – against the Persians in the early decades, against Sparta (the Peloponnesian War) in the latter decades, and other “minor” wars. And yet despite these wars, during the 5th century BCE Athens was in a state of cultural-social-political ferment that left its mark on the whole history of western culture. In the course of that century, there was in Athens a burgeoning of independent-critical thought in the philosophical domain, nature and medicine were systematically studied, tragedies by the Athenians Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides were written and performed, and the democratic regime took shape.