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Atheists & Agnostics

onager

(9,356 posts)

3. Ancient Rome had a version of it.

Reply to NeoGreen (Original post)

Thu Dec 17, 2015, 02:45 PM

Dec 2015

Also, as I remember reading somewhere - ancient Rome made the very wise decision to keep priests out of the legal system. Law had to depend on reason and evidence, not thunderbolts and goat entrails.

Another check over the power of a magistrate was provocatio. Provocatio was a primordial form of due process. It was a precursor to habeas corpus.

If any magistrate was attempting to use the powers of the state against a citizen, that citizen could appeal the decision of the magistrate to a tribune.

http://www.crystalinks.com/RomanRepublic.html

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Question for my fellow Vermin... [View all] NeoGreen Dec 2015 OP

If memory serves, the idea comes from the Magna Carta. cleanhippie Dec 2015 #1

Interestingly, it was likely a churchman who wrote it. JNelson6563 Dec 2015 #2

Ancient Rome had a version of it. onager Dec 2015 #3

I suspect it grew out of a fear of the masses and what will satisfy their sense of "justice served." Freelancer Dec 2015 #4