Grafé Paranomon

Grafé paranomon ( dr. Greek γραφή παρανόμων - graphē paranómōn , “complaint against unlawfulness”) - an accusation aimed at protecting the democratic form of government in Athens from all encroachments that could be directed against it by legislative, but turned later in the hands of demagogues as a means of discouraging the passage of necessary laws, or at least slowing down their adoption.

Any decision of the people (pseudism dr. Greek ψήφισμα ), as well as any law, before and after adoption, could be challenged through such a complaint, on the grounds that the proposal is not in accordance with the existing law, or harmful to the state, or contains formal mistake. The application for filing such a complaint should have been accompanied by an oath ( dr. Greek ύπωμοσία ) that the prosecutor really intended to file it; at the same time, the appointment of a term for the court was sometimes asked. The immediate consequence of such a statement was that the debate was discontinued, or if the decision had already taken place, the law was invalidated until the court sentenced. The culprit of the law until the expiration of the year after its adoption was subjected to personal responsibility for the law proposed by him. The punishment that the accused was subjected to if he was found guilty depended on the will of the judges; he could even be sentenced to death. Just in case, the one who was convicted three times for "unlawfulness" ipso facto lost the right to make offers. Together with the condemned, the law or the pseudo-hypothesis was repealed by itself. The decision was subject to the trial of nine archons.