Cohen, D. (1995), Law, Violence, and Community in Classical Athens, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
In this chapter, Cohen argues that as judicial institutions gain the power to regulate violence, that they become the arenas for resolving feuds that would have previously been sources of violence. Thus, the courts become not just the regulatory mechanism whereby violence is channeled and prevented, but in fact become the institution where feuds are played out. Anthropologists treat feuds as games, and as is abundantly clear from the Athenian context, courts and judges themselves can become feud participants. Courts also frequently decide cases based less on the evidence, which is fundamentally regarded as unreliable, and much more on litigant reputation. Because the system relied on private initiative, imposing high costs on plaintiffs did not serve the public interest.
My take: there's a lot in this chapter for my comparative habeas paper.