EJ+Crime+&+Punishment+Legal+System

=What was Ancient Greece's Legal System?=

Ancient Greece’s Legal System was not as quite advanced as there laws but still far above the standard, adding more evidence that it was the most advanced civilization of its time. The ancient Greeks had court like proceedings similar to what we have today but with some distinct differences. The juries were much larger, up to 600 __Citizens__; this was done to lessen the chances of bribery. There was a magistrate but they just supervised the event. But otherwise they were quite similar, the main cases, such as rape, murder, theft and adultery were almost always dealt with immediately but no matter how severe a crime was it was dealt with in less than one day. The juries would work for a full year and used a voting system but surprisingly they didn’t vote in secret until about five hundred B.C. There were some cases when they would have slaves testify but they could only do it if it was done under torture.

At the start of a “court session” oaths would be exchanged to say the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth (probably unlikely that it was in those words but you understand) and then one sided pleaded innocence or admitted guilt and the other side tried to show that there plea was genuine. If you were accused of a crime you could get someone to help which could have been an early form of a lawyer. Cases were divided into public and private with public concerning the entire community and private concerning one or two people.

Criminals could be submitted to the court by law enforcers who would testify in cases but it was quite common for citizens to report crimes to the court. They would be used as witness’s and if a successful prosecution was finalized the citizen who reported the crime would gain half of the fine charged on the offender. In violent crimes the victim would have to report the crime and show evidence of harm done to them, this was quite a dumb system as most women, children and the elderly couldn’t submit crimes because they were unfit to.

I believe that the ancient Greek government were trying to make sure that with their legal system was free of loop holes. They may not have succeeded in doing this but they sure tried. It was still a very advanced legal system contributing to their reputation of one of the most advanced civilisations ever.

Comparing to Today:
Our modern legal system is obviously more advanced but the Ancient Greek's definately did create a stepping stone. Our court systems have used many ideas from the ancient Greeks such as the idea that a friend could help you, this probably led to lawyers. Our thoughts of a judge have changed and the sizes of juries definately have but a purpose of a jury hasn't and they probably did have so many people in a jury to have like what we have today. We have made our system fairer than they had by using the "innocent until proven quilty" system whereas they used the "quilty until proven innocent" system.