Ancient Legal Thought

Larry May is Professor of Philosophy and Law, Emeritus at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. He has published thirty-seven books, including Limiting Leviathan: Hobbes on Law and International Affairs (2013), Proportionality in International Law, with Michael Newton, (2014), Contingent Pacifism (Cambridge, 2015), Necessity in International Law, with Jens Ohlin (2016), International Criminal Tribunals, with Shannon Fyfe (Cambridge, 2017), and is editor of The Cambridge Handbook of the Just War (Cambridge, 2017). His books have won awards in law, philosophy, and political science and he has advised the US State Department, the CIA, the NIH, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Part I. Mesopotamia and Egypt: Section 1. Ancient Procedural Law: 1. Ancient legal reasoning; 2. Judging, trials, and assemblies; 3. Oaths, ordeals, and truth; Section 2. Freedom, Equality, and Legal Status: 4. Debt forgiveness and equity; 5. Freedom and slavery; 6. Class, legal status, and equality; 7. Women's separate sphere; Section 3. Crime and Punishment: 8. Complicity and conspiracy; 9. Crime and Lex Talionis; 10. Capital punishment; Section 4. International Justice: 11. Ancient treaties and trust; 12. Aggressive war and necessity; Part II. Greece and China: Section 5. Law, Justice and Equity: 13. Custom and law in Ancient Greece and China; 14. Justice and equity; 15. Trial, juries, and democratic assemblies; Section 6. Legal Status: 16. Citizens and aliens; 17. Women; 18. Slavery and democracy; Section 7. Responsibility and Punishment: 19. Causation and responsibility; 20. Homicide and pollution; 21. Justification, excuse, and mitigation; 22. Hubris and impiety; Section 8. War and Amnesty: 23. Amnesty, sanctuary, and exile; 24. Justified war and the law of nations; Part III. India and the Roman Republic: Section 9. Law, Justice and Equity: 25. Law and its sources in Ancient Roman and Indian law; 26. Legal procedures and trials; 27. Equity and justice; Section 10. Legal Status and Social Class: 28. Legal status of women; 29. Social class and slavery; Section 11. Responsibility and Punishment: 30. Political and moral crimes; 31. Punishment, cruelty, and humaneness; 32. Crimes concerning legal and political abuse; Section 12. War and Treaties: 33. Treaties, hostages, and keeping faith; 34. The rules of war and the law of peoples; Part IV. Rabbinic Law and the Roman Empire: Section 13. Justice, Equity, and Conflict of Laws: 35. Law, morality, and religion; 36. Dual legal regimes; 37. The law and ancient legal scholars; Section 14. Differential Status: 38. Women in Jewish and Roman thought; 39. Slaves in Jewish and Roman legal thought; Section 15. Responsibility: 40. Intention and causation in criminal law; 41. Injury and murder; 42. Public punishment, penal prisons, and police; Section 16. Universal Law at the End of Ancient Times: 43. Universal law and human rights; 44. The origins of the just war doctrine; 45. Final thoughts on equity, justice, and humaneness.