Athens Rome
...was oligarchy (small group of rulers who controlled the judicial, military, civil and religious functions of government)
Oligarchy became powerful and passed laws for its benefit
Farmers and merchants revolted
Nobles saw the danger in the future, so they distributed land of the wealthy to the poor and it gave Assembly power to pass laws and elect gov't officials
Direct democracy developed-more people had a say in gov't
Beliefs: Majority rule (law making process and jury trials), all citizens equal
Women, slaves and foreigners were not citizens- unable to be in gov't, poor could not afford education and there were lotteries rather than elections.
Rome:
Republic-representative democracy, one citizen represents a number of others
Social structure: patricians (upper, landowners) and plebians (lower, farmers)
Each had lawmaking body, but only patrician Senate could pass laws
Plebians wanted greater role in gov't-they were allowed to hold gov't posts
Beliefs: lawmaking bodies on state and local levels, all free men have equal rights, innocent until proven guilty, certain rights can never be taken away
Contributions: system of laws- patrician judges made unfair decisions, therefore, laws were written down to handle similar cases similarly
English Traditions:
"cultural baggage"-brought traditions of England to America
Common Law-judicial decisions standardized-judges look back on past similar cases
Precedents-previous decisions and local customs of people-same decisions applied for all- this is today's basic legal procedure-cite past cases to prove theirs
Magna Carta (1215)-king not above law, trial by jury (peers), speedy trial, protections from unjust punishment
Parliament-English lawmaking and...
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