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Instruction 1-1
Western Law and its Influences | Thinkers of the Enlightenment
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Post-Test |
| Q&A | Great Books: Plato's Republic | Q&A |
The influences of Western law are ancient and include a series of historical precedents from several cultures and time periods. Creators of Western law built upon these influences in order to give us the legal concepts we use today. Not all of these concepts have their beginnings in the West, such as the first known written laws called The Code of Hammurabi (http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/d/267/whm.html).
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concept of written law we move on to the laws themselves. Every
culture around the world has its own ideas of right and wrong.
These concepts are built upon from tradition. In the West our
concept of right and wrong comes from what is known as the
Judeo-Christian ethic. Religion plays an important role in guiding
the lives of its followers. In ancient times and even in some
cultures today religious law and non-religious or secular law are often the same. In Western society Christianity is the
common religious view and has influenced Western law. Christianity originated from Judaism, the religion of the
Hebrews.
The Hebrews had a set of written laws known as the Ten Commandments (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments), or the Decalogue. |
Hebrew tradition states that these commandments were given by God
to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Ten Commandments serve as the basis of
Jewish laws. Commandments such as “thou shalt not kill”, “thou
shalt not steal” are not only religious but social laws too.
Certain Commandments tell children to respect their parents and
for people to “not bear false witness against thy neighbor”
which is lying. These commandments reflect the values of the
Hebrew people in addition to their religious beliefs.
The Christian religion also follows the Ten Commandments Many people have heard of the “Golden Rule” which basically says “treat other people the way you wish to be treated by them”. This idea combined with the ones included in the Ten Commandments is what makes the Judeo-Christian ethic, which makes up a major part of our modern Western concept of law and ethics.
When examining the influences of Western law we must look at practice as well as ethics. Just as the Judeo-Christian ethic guides the values of Western law, Greco-Roman tradition guides its practice. In Greece around 500 BC the Athenian Cleisthenes (klys-thuh-neez) brought about a democratic form of government where people could participate in government and not simply be ruled over. We call it a limited democracy because in its early form only Athenian citizens could vote, and only adult, male, property owners were considered citizens. Regardless of who could vote the important thing is that people were able to participate in their government. People were able to create the laws that governed them. The Greeks of ancient Athens also came up with new legal concepts as well, such as any citizen could bring charges against anyone who did them wrong. In addition to the concept of democracy the classical Greeks also gave us philosophy [http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/help/collect.htm],or literally “love of thought”. When examining the roots of the Western concepts of law, two famous philosophers stand out, one is Plato. Around 370 BC he wrote The Republic, [http://www.friesian.com/plato.htm] a work in which Plato provides his vision of the perfectly governed society. The other is Aristotle who wrote Politics (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/aristotle-politics1.html). Both of these works influenced Western thinkers (http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture6b.html).
 http://www.historyguide.org /ancient/greece_res.html |
The Romans
around 509 BC created the Republic form of government. This form
of government allows people to elect their leaders. This is the
basis of the current form of government in the United States. In
addition the Romans took the example of Hammurabi and wrote down
their laws; they called them the Twelve
Tables.
The Twelve Tables established the idea that all free citizens had
a right to protection under the law. Other important Roman legal
concepts were:
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By the second century BC the
Romans had conquered Greece. The resulting combination of Greek
and Roman culture is known as Greco-Roman. This combination of
cultures provided the basis for Western legal and political
thought. It was to the classical civilizations that European
thinkers of the Enlightenment would refer to when they spoke
out against the absolute monarchs of the 17th and 18th centuries.
http://www.interlog.com/~gilgames/senate.htm
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