Divided Power in the Athenian Assembly

Abstract

Abstract This chapter continues the investigation of the balance between deliberation and legal consistency in Greek divided power. It discusses the procedure of adeia (immunity) in fifth-century Athenian assembly decision-making. It argues that adeia was designed to grant a temporary suspension of any given law in exceptional circumstances without allowing for any permanent legal change. This chapter explores the terminology of immunity and shows that it was connected with the emotion of fear and the traditional nomothetic ideology of Greek legislative practice. It reconstructs the procedural details of adeia as they emerge from the epigraphical and literary evidence and shows that adeia was an innovative legal institution created to allow the dēmos to overcome entrenchment clauses. Finally, the chapter explores how adeia established a form of divided power within the assembly by creating an incomplete rule of legal change through which the dēmos could negotiate between legal stability and legal change during assembly decree-making.