Between Isonomia and Hegemonia: Political Complexities of Transitional Justice in Ancient Greece

BUIS, EMILIANO JERÓNIMO

Historical Origins of International Criminal Law

Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher

Lugar: Bruselas; Año: 2015; p. 27 - 61

This paper examines a number of historical examples provided by classical Greek póleis in order to clarify the foundations underlying different attitudes towards individual responsibility for the breach of shared nómoi, and elucidate the tension of attaining justice by an egalitarian unification of polîtai after a traumatic rupture (equality among citizens) or by a sel-centered desire of preeminence over the enemy city-states (inequality among póleis). The purpose of this research is to show that, standing between democratic self-preservation and hegemonic longing, these experiences demonstrate to the modern eye a wide scope of arguments and ideologies that can explain, from the very beginning, the historical and political basis of today´s institutions of international criminal justice.