Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights

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Authors: Susan Ford Wiltshire

Tags: #Political Science, #General, #History, #Law, #Reference, #Civil Rights, #test

BOOK: Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights
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title
:
Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture ; V. 15
author
:
Wiltshire, Susan Ford.
publisher
:
University of Oklahoma Press
isbn10 | asin
:
0806124644
print isbn13
:
9780806124643
ebook isbn13
:
9780585170015
language
:
English
subject
Human rights--Greece--History, Human rights--Rome--History, United States.--Constitution.--1st-10th Amendments, Natural law, Comparative government.
publication date
:
1992
lcc
:
JC599.G728W55 1992eb
ddc
:
323/.0938
subject
:
Human rights--Greece--History, Human rights--Rome--History, United States.--Constitution.--1st-10th Amendments, Natural law, Comparative government.
Page i
Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights
Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture
 
page_ii<br/>
Page ii
Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture
Series Editor
A. J. Heisserer,
University of Oklahoma
Advisory Board
David F. Bright,
Iowa State University Nancy Demand,
Indiana University Elaine Fantham,
Princeton University R. M. Frazer,
Tulane University Ronald J. Leprohon,
University of Toronto Robert A. Moysey,
University of Mississippi Helen F. North,
Swarthmore College Robert J. Smutny,
University of the Pacific Eva Stehle,
University of Maryland at College Park A. Geoffrey Woodhead,
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge/Ohio State University John Wright,
Northwestern University

 

Page iii
Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights
Susan Ford Wiltshire
University of Oklahoma Press : Norman and London
 
page_iv<br/>
Page iv
to
ATW, Jr.
viro bono, civi bono, agricolae bono
By Susan Ford Wiltshire
(ed.)
The Usefulness of Classical Learning in the Eighteenth Century
(University Park, Pa., 1976)
Public and Private in Vergil's Aeneid
(Amherst, Mass., 1989)
Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights
(Norman, 1992)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wiltshire, Susan Ford, 1941-
Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights / Susan Ford Wiltshire.
1st ed.
p. cm. (Oklahoma series in classical culture: : v. 15)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8061-2464-4 (alk. paper)
1. Human rightsGreeceHistory. 2. Human rightsRomeHistory.
3. United StatesConstitutional lawAmendments1st-10th.
4. Natural law. 5. Comparative government. I. Title. II. Series.
JC599.G728W55 1992 92-54142
323'.0938dc20 CIP
Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights
is Volume 15 of the Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources, Inc.
Copyright © 1992 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the U.S.A. First edition.

 

page_v<br/>
Page v
CONTENTS
Preface
vii
Introduction
3
Part OneFrom Athens to America: The Evolution of the Idea of Rights
1. The Origins: Greek Philosophy and Roman Law
9
2. Law, Individual, and Church in the Middle Ages
30
3. English Beginnings: Common Law and Magna Carta
51
4. Enlightenment Humanism and the "New Thought"
62
5. The Bill of Rights
89
Part TwoGreek and Roman Antecedents to the Bill of Rights
6. Amendment I: The Basic Freedoms
103
7. Amendments II and III: Bearing Arms and Quartering Soldiers
132
8. Amendment IV: Search and Seizure
146
9. Amendments V, VI, VII, and VIII: Judicial Process
150
10. Amendments IX and X: Retained Rights and Reserved Powers
168

 

Page vi
Conclusion
184
Notes
187
Sources Cited
215
American Political Thought and the Classics:
A Bibliography
229
Index
239
 
page_vii<br/>
Page vii
PREFACE
This book began as part of a symposium on the classics and the United States Constitution, held at Boston University in 1989 in honor of Meyer Reinhold on his eightieth birthday. Professor Reinhold, principal founder of the study of the classical tradition in America, understands in a deeply personal way the relationship between scholarship and citizenship.
Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights
, like my original symposium paper, is meant as a tribute to this valued scholar and friend.
I could not have undertaken this project without the help of my colleague Thomas A. J. McGinn of the Department of Classical Studies at Vanderbilt University. I am grateful to Professor McGinn, a specialist in Roman law, for his expertise and enthusiasm for this endeavor.
Kimberly Wiar of the University of Oklahoma Press saw the possibilities for this book at the outset and was a trusted companion in the process of its completion.
The staff of the Vanderbilt Law Library, especially Mary Colosia and Howard Hood, offered patient help and hospitality to a stray classicist for many months. Other Vanderbilt colleagues who contributed bibliography and ideas were Robert H. Birkby, Robert Drews, Jean Porter, and

 

page_viii<br/>
Page viii
William H. Race. James Mathis, a classicist and lawyer, assisted in the early stages of research.
Michael Gagarin and the anonymous readers for the University of Oklahoma Press not only prevented errors but also enhanced the content of these pages with their thoughtful suggestions.
By happy coincidence I was summoned for jury service at the Metropolitan Davidson County Courthouse during the same weeks I was writing the chapter on the origins of juries. The seriousness with which my fellow jurors took their responsibilities confirmed my appreciation for the remarkable notion that ordinary citizens are properly entrusted with decisions affecting the lives of their peers. At the courthouse, too, I had occasion to witness firsthand the commitment to the Bill of Rights of my friends Judge Walter C. Kurtz, Chancellor Robert S. Brandt, and Clerk and Master Claudia C. Bonnyman.
Dean Jacque Voegeli of the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science arranged a timely leave of absence for the completion of this work. Russell G. Hamilton, dean for graduate studies and research, provided funds from the Vanderbilt University Research Council for preparation of the manuscript. Robert Dale Sweeney read the drafts of the chapters with his practiced eye and good judgment, ruthlessly excising such jargon as "paradigm shift." Linda Narrow, a Nashville attorney, checked the legal references. David Coffta helped prepare the bibliographies. Anne Browning Lara, undaunted by recalcitrant computers, gracefully brought the manuscript into final order. I am grateful to them all.
My hope is that this book will contribute to a deeper understanding of the origins of the Bill of Rights and also to a greater appreciation of the importance of constitutional protections for both the individual and the common good.
SUSAN FORD WILTSHIRE
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

 

page_3<br/>
Page 3
INTRODUCTION
The principle that a purpose of government is to protect the individual rights and minority opinions of its citizens is a recent development in human history. When the Bill of Rights became part of the United States Constitution on December 15, 1791, notions of human liberty and the civic status of individuals took a form unprecedented in the history of political governance. These principles were for the first time articulated in unmistakable terms and encoded in a nation's written constitution, enforceable by courts of law and subject to restatement only by the consent of the governed. The ideas and practices behind the Bill of Rights, however, have a very long history that it is the purpose of this book to explore.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson referred confidently to the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" as the source of the "self-evident" truths that ''all men are created equal" and are endowed ''with certain unalienable rights." In this confidence Jefferson was elaborating ideas that had their origins more than two thousand years earlier in classical Greek philosophy. Eventually these ideas became attached to the practicalities of Roman law and thereby shaped the political institutions

 

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