History

The Western civilization or the modern society of today includes among others, the North America and Europe. There are many different ways why these nations act the way they do and this is partly because of the influence that they have gotten from the Greeks and the Romans. The Greeks and the Romans are two of the most powerful and influential civilizations in the the history. They changed the world because of their major contributions in art, literature and philosophy. The Romans and the Greeks have comparable differences and similarities. They are similar in the way they handle their citizens but they differ when it comes to sharing their powers among their government leaders. Greece was governed by democracy while Rome was a republican (Galatasaray Lisei,n.d.). The Greeks and the Romans are not only comparable in the way they handle their political systems. An examination of the justice systems of these two civilizations can lead one to appreciate their contributions. The principles and styles governing the justice systems established by the Romans and the Greeks affect the world in more ways than one and even until today, they continue to inspire the justice systems of different countries.

After the Dark Ages, Ancient Greece has no laws or punishments to guide them. The murderers then were punished by the family of the victim who would go after the murderer to kill them. It was not until after the middle of 7th century BC that the Greeks first began to formulate their laws. Draco wrote the first law of Greece around 620 BC. This very first law was made exile as a penalty for homicide (Multiply, 2008).

As time passes by, the laws of the Greeks evolved and became one of the most influential legal system in the civilized society. The Greek law is a branch of comparative jurisprudence that can be related to the laws as well as the legal institutions of Greece. The Greek Iuris law has always been compared with the Roman law and has been adopted by many nations until today. The Greeks adopted its criminal justice system from the West European models. Their Constitution and Civil laws have specific provisions for the protection of the rights of the accused (Community Russians Abroad, n.d.). If there is one thing that many people learned from the Greeks, it would be criticism. This is derived from the judging system of the Greeks as seen in a court case or even in theatrical performances. The most basic example of the Greeks application of their critical theory was their invention of the political theory during the fifth century BC (BBC, 2009).

The legal system of the Greek came from the family of European laws influenced by the German and French law. Their rule of law or the kratos dikaiou is the very foundation of their justice system and the basis for the organization of their state. The rationale for their rule of law is the recognition of the importance of life and human dignity. These very principles define the limitations of the state action and intervention. Article four to twenty five of their Constitution states laws safeguarding human rights and the free development of ones personality (Christodoulou, 2001). According to the judicial system of the Greeks, every court is competent to judge the adherence or not of a legal provision in relation to the Constitution. One of the biggest contribution of the Greeks was the implementation of the death penalty. This dilemma faced by the Greeks in connection with death penalty influenced modern society. The last three decades of enforcing this judgment has been filled with conflicting criticisms. This punishment originated on the premise that it is a basic instinct to retaliate. During the 1200-800 BC, homicide was a strictly personal crime and if the killer was not able to escape, the family of the victims will kill the perpetrator as a price for the crime that he committed (Encyclopaedia Brittannica, 2010).

According to the Greeks, one of the purposes of a trial is to seize the person and property of the defendant or both in order enforce a proceeding (praxis). The (dike) claims of a plaintiff as well as his rights may also be raised in order to pursue his private or public (demosia) rights  to achieve punishments for the defendant. To carry out a punishment, the Ancient Greeks developed the system of trying, convicting and sentencing the guilty persons and they were able to do so by creating a court system (Multiply, 2008).

The Roman justice system is among one of the many legacies left by Rome in todays society. Their government structure and legal system was adopted by many countries and civilizations. In England as well as in the United States, a variety of the Roman law otherwise known as common law is still being used. Judgments rendered by the courts are based on rulings of the judges and justices on previous cases. The Latin influence are being quoted in majority of the legal systems all over the world (Jahnige, 2005).

The Greeks absence of a body of jurisprudence can be compared to that of the Romans because according to history, the Romans did not have any tendency to codify any laws. This is the reason why the only codification of laws of the Romans were found only in the beginning and at the end of the Roman history (Global Oneness, 2010). The very first law of the Roma history was the Law of the Twelve Tables. It was the Romans who created the division between public and private law and they are also responsible for the laws that concern the disputes among the citizens (Daxner.com, 2010).

Roman law has  a a great body of influence in most of the western civilizations. It deals with the matters relating to succession or the inheritance of persons, the obligations and contract, and the properties. Most of the Roman laws were passed by the assemblies that were dominated by the patrician families (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2010). The Romans process of making laws has a deep influence on the political systems of today. During the dawn of the Roman Republic , the lawmaking was a bicameral task. Legislations were passed by assemblymen and were approved by the representatives of the upper class or the senate. Today, many nations including America have used the republican Rome as a role model in shaping their own governments and they do so by passing a requirement that all laws must go through two legislative bodies. This pattern was adopted by almost all of the democratic Constitutions all over the globe (Daxner.com, 2010).

The Roman Law has been substituted by many modern laws however, these new laws did not start from scratch. They were, to a large extent modified and adopted in a systematic order by many countries. This is particularly true especially when it comes to the German Civil Code and most of the European legal systems. Roman law is the common framework upon which the legal order of Europe was built  (Rufner, n.d.). On the other hand, a number of similarities can also be seen from the Greek legal system and the American legal system. Both the American and the Athenian legal systems are comparable by the way they try cases. The dike case, for instance is similar to American civil cases in a sense that they both involve disputes between persons. Both Athenian and American systems also have different courts to handle different types of cases. For instance, there are some courts that dealt with cases about homicide while in America, murder cases are tried in different courts depending on what type of law is violated (Rhodes, 2008).

The Roman and the Greek justice systems differ in the fact that the Greeks lacked the legal science that the Romans have despite the fact that the Romans borrowed extensively from the Greeks. No matter how seemingly popular and well respected the Greek and Roman civilizations are, many cannot help but criticize these two societies in many ways. For one thing, the Roman law has been criticized because of its private law accounts responsible for slavery and racial segregation in the United States. Slavery was and always will be looked upon negatively. Even until today, America is considered as racially segregated and this was partially because of the influence that they have received from the Romans  (Del Granado, 2007). On the other hand the Greeks are mostly criticized because of their system of democracy did not give assurance to equality among the citizens. Many issues led to the conclusion that democracy was a slow kind of government and it only proved effective only to  small number of citizens. Due to this failed democracy that Athens had, there are some countries that do not want to choose this political system of governance because they do not what their country to fail the way the Greeks did (Rose, 2009).

The legacy of Rome and Greece left reverberating effects on numerous aspects of the society. Many things in everyday living have Roman and Greek Origins. The art, literature and the justice system of today would not be the same without the Greek and the Romans. The good thing is that the civilizations of today will be able to learn something from the mistakes as well as the achievements of the Greeks and the Romans. These lessons must be taken seriously not only by the Western civilization but all nations of today who are inclined to adopt something from the Romans and the Greeks for the benefit of their present and future.