International Law in Antiquity

by David J. Bederman

• ISBN13: 9780521791977
• ISBN10: 0521791979
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-05
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This study of the origins of international law combines techniques of intellectual history and historiography to investigate the earliest developments of the law of nations. The book examines the sources, processes and doctrines of international legal obligation in antiquity to re-evaluate the critical attributes of international law. David J. Bederman focuses on three essential areas in which law influenced ancient state relations - diplomacy, treaty-making and warfare - in a detailed analysis of international relations in the Near East (2800-700 BCE), the Greek city-states (500-338 BCE) and Rome (358-168 BCE). Containing topical literature and archaeological evidence, this study does not merely catalogue instances of recognition by ancient states of these seminal features of international law: it accounts for recurrent patterns of thinking and practice. This comprehensive analysis of international law and state relations in ancient times provides a fascinating study for lawyers and academics, ancient historians and classicists alike.

Author Biography

David J. Bederman is Professor of Law at Emory University's School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
List of abbreviations	xiii
Maps	xiv
A methodological introduction: this study and its limitations	1	(15)
Times and places	2	(2)
Comparison and relativism	4	(2)
Sources, process, and doctrines	6	(2)
Texts and sources	8	(3)
The modern critique of ancient international law	11	(5)
State relations in ancient civilizations	16	(32)
The concepts of State and State system and their relevance to antiquity	16	(5)
The ancient Near East: Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt	21	(10)
Sumer and Mesopotamia	22	(2)
The great Near Eastern empires, 1400-1150 BCE	24	(4)
Syria and Palestine, 966-700 BCE	28	(3)
The Greek city-States, 500-338 BCE	31	(10)
Rome and its competitors, 358-168 BCE	41	(7)
Religion and the sources of a law of nations in antiquity	48	(40)
The metaphysics of ancient international law	51	(8)
Good faith and breaking faith	51	(3)
Four fragments	54	(5)
Religion	59	(14)
Nationalism and universalism	59	(2)
Making and breaking oaths	61	(12)
Ritual and custom	73	(6)
Reason and rhetoric	79	(6)
Conclusion	85	(3)
Making friends: diplomats and foreign visitors in ancient times	88	(49)
The reception and protection of diplomats and embassies	88	(32)
Some general concepts	88	(7)
The formalities of diplomacy	95	(11)
Privileges and immunities of diplomats	106	(14)
The status and protection of alien visitors	120	(15)
Agreements: xenoi, asylia, isopoliteia, and symbola	124	(6)
The proxenia institution	130	(4)
Western Mediterranean analogues	134	(1)
Ritualized friendship in an ancient law of nations	135	(2)
Making fatith: treaty practices amongst ancient peoples	137	(70)
Beginnings of the ancient treaty tradition in the Near East	137	(17)
General suppositions and the earliest texts	137	(4)
The Babylonians, Hittites, and Assyrians	141	(5)
The Egyptians and the treaty with the Hittites of 1280 BCE	146	(4)
Ancient Israelite practice	150	(4)
The Greek city-States	154	(29)
Terminology and types of treaties	154	(17)
The nature of Greek treaty-making	171	(12)
Western Mediterranean departures in treaty-making	183	(19)
Patterns of treaty-making by Western Mediterranean cultures	183	(11)
Formalities and enforcement of Roman treaties	194	(8)
Ancient treaty-making: enforcement, sophistication, tradition, and universality	202	(5)
Making war: the commencement and conduct of hostilities in ancient times	207	(60)
Declarations of war	208	(34)
Justifications for commencing hostilities	208	(19)
The rituals for starting a war and the legal consequences of an outbreak of hostilities	227	(15)
Laws of war	242	(21)
Restraint in warfare	242	(7)
Immunities in warfare	249	(11)
After the war	260	(3)
Managing conflict in antiquity	263	(4)
Civilization and community in the ancient mind	267	(14)
Topical bibliography	281	(22)
Index	303