全英外国法制史复习资料.doc

WESTERN LEGAL HISTORY: FINAL EXAMINATION STUDY GUIDE
SHORT ANSWERS: (5 questions for each, 20 marks in all)
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of .his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes.
●Justice is the interest of the people
●People have the benefit of laws, so agree to respect them
●Disobedience of the law destroys the law and the state
●Justice is promise: doing wrong or being wronged
Plato was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He used to advocate that the king of a country should be a philosopher, but later changes his mind.
●Human mits injustice whenever it is possible
●Dominant class makes law for self
●Proper role of law is ensuring the general benefit
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic , rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Aristotle believes in the function of the law and insists that rule of law is better than rule of men.
●Public officials must critically study different cities’ laws
●The laws must be adapted to different circumstances of people
●The character of law is ‘a kind of order’, and the law also has a ‘compulsive force’
●Man has a natural instinct to live in munities
●Man’s nature desires the best life he can get
●Man is a “political animal”
Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He is widely considered one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists.
He is also considered as the ancient pioneer of the separation of powers