Ergonomics for Impartiality and Efficiency in the Law-Courts of Ancient Athens

Abstract

The judicial procedure in the classical Athenian time (508–323 B.C.E.), was designed to achieve societal values such as representativeness, legitimacy and impartiality. In the present paper, the procedure for selecting and allocating daily jurors to law-courts and the artefacts involved are described, based on the description made by Aristotle in his book Constitution of Athens, as well as findings from excavations in ancient Agora of Athens. It is demonstrated that the whole system meets contemporary ergonomic principles for user-centred and service design. Furthermore, it is shown that the system of the ancient Athenian law-courts represents an exemplar case of a highly sophisticated sociotechnical system, designed based on the understanding of societal values and the users’ micro-moments throughout their entire journey.