Condicionamientos democráticos y sistema judicial ateniense

Abstract

This article will analyse some conditioning that follow from the nonprofessional chacacter of direct Athenian democracy´s law system. Some contemporary authors were conscious of the deficiencies that a system, that has such a dependency from the rhetoric habilities of the litigants, had to pronounce fair sentencies. Gorgias, Antiphon and Plato pointed out the necessity of juries taking enough time valuing prooves and testimonies, and suggested that responsability had to be required by the sentencies they pronounced. The assumed arbitrariness with which judges applied existing laws, fairly commented nowadays, was however less evident in the ancient sources.