Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

Art, architecture, drama, philosophy and democracy itself: These are the great triumphs of ancient Greece, and specifically of Periclean Athens.1 However, the creative and productive forces which characterized life within the city-state were never equalled in relations between city-states. Perhaps the greatest failure of ancient Greece, to the frustration of those who ponder what might have been, was that despite extensive intercity-state arbitration of commercial and territorial disputes, and a resultant development of what would now be considered a nascent form of international law, these mechanisms were never utilized sufficiently to save the city-states from themselves.