ABSTRACT
The name of Plato has been figuring rather prominently in the warfare of ideologies. Whatever he may have believed when he wrote the Republic, in his later years Plato would not have agreed even in theory with the advocates of power untrammelled by law. Long before the writing of the Laws Plato had taken a hand in this controversy. Plato advances some proposals for the reform of the courts, among others the proposal to set up a court of select judges to pass on accusations of treason and other capital offenses. Plato says very little about the constitution or selection of these courts, but what he does say makes it quite clear that he is thinking of large popular courts, chosen by sections and tribes, and selected by lot as occasion demands and immediately before the opening of the trial. A great part of the Laws is concerned with this practical and humble task of devising instruments of law-enforcement.
