The article argues that Plato's Laws contain an implicit conception of freedom, particularly in Book III. It proposes that, while the concept is not treated systematically by Plato, it merits attention due to its presence in the text. I argue that there is a Form of Freedom in the book. It is comprised of two dimensions: an organic and a civic component. They are mediated by human agency. However, freedom in its ideal form is only possible for a select intellectual elite that can grasp these two dimensions. This elite is composed of a few wise elder men who take up the task of lawmaking as a ludic or playful enterprise. I also argue that degeneration away from true freedom is possible when political elites mislead a community away from Plato's ideal, such as with Cyrus in Persia. Ultimately, Plato's idea of freedom tells us that liberty is only truly available to a select few, not to a broad citizenry. Thus, freedom and democracy are not tied intimately but are opposed to each other.
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Law in Theory, Law in Practice
Legal Orientalism and French Jesuit Knowledge Production in India
Danna Agmon
knowledge that is then sent back to the metropole. Today he is collating information about Indian law, categorizing, explicating, and sending it to a legal scholar in Paris, one eager for knowledge of the exotic East. Orientalist discourse about a reified
In Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2019
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 28–49 (22 total)
Law and Liberation
Critical Notes on Agamben’s Political Messianism
Jayne Svenungsson
argue that in one respect Agamben does repeat a typical supersessionist gesture, namely in pitting law against grace and thereby counterposing law to liberation. In so doing, Agamben not only fails to do justice to an essential element in Jewish
In European Judaism
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2017
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 68–77 (10 total)
Changes in Moral Values about the Family
Adoption Legislation in Norway and the US
Signe Howell
Legislation about personal behavior, such as family law, clearly manifests concerns about individual and relational rights and duties. With a focus on adoption laws in Norway and the US and on two international conventions (the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption), I examine different cultural values regarding childhood and parenthood, both historically and comparatively. Accompanying the recent growth of transnational adoption in Western Europe and North America, issues about what might constitute 'the best interest of the child' have become central in influential welfare circles of European countries that receive children in adoption and are reflected on a global level through the conventions.
In Social Analysis
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2006
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 146–163 (18 total)
String Theory and ‘The Man of Law’s Tale’
Where Is Constancy?
William A. Quinn
…incerto tempore ferme incertisque locis spatio depellere paulum [at random times and places they shift a bit] Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (II, 218–219) Chaucer’s ‘The Man of Law’s Tale’ is strange. In the Riverside edition, Larry
Inside and Outside the law
Negotiated Being and Urban Jouissance in the Streets of Beirut
Ghassan Hage
of what gives Lebanon’s periodic civil wars their particularly chaotic form. “Shoo hal fawda b’hal balad!” (What a chaotic nation this is!), “Ma fi nazam b’hal balad!” (There is no law and order in this nation!), and “Ma fi dawleh!” (There is no state
In Social Analysis
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2018
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 88–108 (21 total)
Women and Family Law in Byzantium
Some Notes
Niki Megalommati
. Available sources—imperial law, histories and chronicles, hagiographies, and archival documents—were written mainly by males; female-authored texts are rare in Byzantine literature. Social stratification also operates against attempts to create a consistent
In Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2017
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 19–32 (14 total)
Gilad Ben-Nun
stipulations of Roman law. Lastly, I wish to demonstrate the difference with which both of these legal systems address forced migrants from both categories. In search for the definitional difference between these two categories of displaced people as they
In Migration and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2021
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 124–136 (13 total)
Alison K. Smith
ties with their home village or town. Laws regulating social mobility also developed extensively in this period. 6 Where the laws of passports were relatively simple ones of identification (the multiple rounds of laws about passports were largely
Life at a Tangent to Law
Regulations, ‘Mistakes’ and Personhood amongst Kigali’s Motari
Will Rollason
knowing stupidity. Thus, André could be seen as resisting legality, trying to avoid the problems of visibility and legibility ( Scott 1998 ) that the law imposes and the risk of serious difficulties that it might entail. In Rwandan studies, such accounts
In Journal of Legal Anthropology
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jan 2018
- Article Type:
- Research Articles
- Pages:
- 26–48 (23 total)