Athens was known throughout the ancient world for both its laws and its uniquely democratic methods of debating and setting decrees. This is particularly evident in those decrees given later amendments, and some disagreement has arisen among scholars as to how the language of those decrees reflects the actual process of debate and consensus that produced them. Billheimer addresses suggestions made by Laqueur as to the nature of this process and reviews the evidence in an effort to refine our understanding of the reasons why ammendments gradually fell from decrees in Athens by the second century BC. This piece is particularly interesting to those interested in Athenian law, but is also helpful to a wider audience of Classicists since a knowledge of the particulars involved in Athenian legislation also illuminates one's understanding of Athenian politics.