1st Edition

Plato and Modern Law

Edited By Richard O. Brooks Copyright 2007

    This audacious collection of modern writings on Plato and the Law argues that Plato's work offers insights for resolving modern jurisprudential problems. Plato's dialogues, in this modern interpretation, reveal that knowledge of the functions of law, based upon intelligible principles, can be reformulated for relevance to our age. Leading interpreters of Plato: Vlastos, Hall, Strauss, Weinrib, Annas, and Morrow, are included in the collection. The editor supplies an insightful introduction and extensive bibiography to the collection.

    Contents: Series preface; Introduction; Part I Overview of Plato's Political and Legal Thought: Plato's theory of law, Huntington Cairns; Plato's legal philosophy, Jerome Hall. Part II Plato in the Tradition of Legal and Political Thought: What is political philosophy, Leo Strauss; Positive language and positive law in Plato's Cratylus, James Bernard Murphy. Part III The Central Issue of Plato's Legal Philosophy: The historical Socrates and Athenian democracy, Gregory Vlastos. Part IV Plato's Theory of Law in the Dialogues: Apology: The legal setting of Plato's Apology, Robert J. Bonner; An introduction for judges and lawyers to Plato's Apology of Socrates, William T. Braithwaite; Crito: Law and justice in Plato's Crito, R.E. Allen; Another look at the Crito, Philip Soper; Gorgias: Law as myth: reflections on Plato's Gorgias, Ernest J. Weinrib; The ethics of argument: Plato's Gorgias and the modern lawyer, James Boyd White; Protagoras: Not Socrates but Protagoras: the sophistic basis of legal education, William C. Hefferman; Republic: Plato's Republic and feminism, Julia Annas; The meaning of 'justice' and the theory of the forms, Charles H. Kahn; Implementing the ideal state, George Klosko; The Republic in the light of the Socratic method: a contribution to the defense of Plato's political philosophy, Henry G. Wolz; Laws: Platonic laws in a Colorado courtroom: Martha Nussbaum, John Furris and Plato's Laws in Evans v. Romer, Randall Baldwin Clark; Plato and the rule of law, Glenn R. Morrow; Plato's law code in context: rule by written law in Athens and Magnesia, Andrea Wilson Nightingale; Laws, preambles and the legislator in Plato, M.J. Silverthorne; Minos: An anonymous treatise on law: the pseudo-Platonic dialogue Minos, Anton-Herman Chroust; Statesman: The Mantike Techne: statesman 260E and 290C4-6, Thomas C. Brickhouse and Nicholas D. Smith. Part V New Directions for Platonic Thought in the Law: Dialectic: The idea of dialectic, Mortimer J. Adler; The Socratic m

    Biography

    Richard O. Brooks is Professor of Law and Founding Director at Vermont Law School, USA.