CfA Lawyers Group Event: Moot trial of Antigone

For the final Lawyers Group event of 2017 a moot trial of Antigone will be held on 4 October at the UK Supreme Court. Space is limited, so please book early to ensure you have a seat. The event begins promptly at 6.00pm; doors open 5.30pm.

The theme of Sophocles’ play Antigone is disobeying the law.

Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, defies her uncle, Creon, the King. When her two brothers kill each other in battle, Creon orders that one, Eteocles, is to be buried with full honours, while the other, Polynices, whom Creon regards as a traitor, is to be left to rot. No one is to mourn him. Anyone who tries to bury him will himself be put to death.

Antigone cannot accept this, and attempts to bury her brother. Creon decides that she must die. The play raises the issue whether it can be right to disobey the law of the land in the name of what today might be called a higher law.

The theme was taken up by Jean Anouilh in his play Antigone, first performed in 1942 in occupied France. (Anouilh was “perhaps the most superlatively gifted theatrical craftsman of his generation” according to the Penguin Companion to European Literature.)

The question whether Antigone is guilty or whether her defiance is justified will be debated by Counsel in this “mock trial”. This is not intended to replicate a trial under ancient Greek law nor under English law. It is a debate on the fundamental issue whether it can be right to disobey the law.

Counsel for the prosecution: Robert McCracken QC and Charles Streeten (Francis Taylor Building)

Counsel for the defence: Professor Takis Tridimas and Anita Davies (Matrix Chambers)

Submissions limited to 30 minutes on each side.

Lord Carnwath, Justice of the Supreme Court, will preside.

The verdict will be given by the audience.

The event will be followed by a reception.

On past experience of the Classics for All Lawyers’ Group annual moot, it will be an excellent evening, educational, entertaining and enjoyable.

Thanks to our event PRINCIPAL SPONSORS: Robert Venables QC and The Rushworth Foundation, and SPONSOR Sir Christopher Clarke.

Please contact Jules Mann at jules@classicsforall.org.uk if you (or your firm) wish to co-sponsor this event.