The Space of Law and the Law of Space

Abstract

This essay investigates the interconnections between early Greek cosmology and legal theory. In particular, it demonstrate that spatial and legal concepts developed hand in hand, and that it would be mistaken to assume that legal terminology in cosmology, and/or spatial terminology in legal texts, are best read metaphorically. This state of affairs may be contrasted with contemporary legal theory, which often employs spatial terms metaphorically. The principal authors I␣consider are Solon, Anaxamander, Heraclitus and Parmenides. The essay concludes that justice and space/place were, for the Early Greeks, often equated—that distinct differing meanings for the two were not yet clearly established, and so, in a sense, there was both a spatial component to law, and a legal component to space.