Plato and Modern Law

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

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