I have been unable to find any archaeological evidence, such as epigraphic records or inscribed legal texts, confirming the existence of this practice, making it challenging to prove a negative.
Two ancient Greeks give second-hand accounts of the practice, historian Diodorus (Diod. 12.17) and statesman Demosthenes (Dem. 24 139), however, they attributed the law to different lawgivers, Charondas and Zaleucus, respectively, both of whom lived centuries earlier.
It should also be noted that Demosthenes (d. 322 BC), the first person credited as describing the practice, twice referred to it as a "story":
- "The story goes that a man, whose enemy had only one eye, threatened to knock that one eye out." (Dem. 24 140)
- "And that, according to the story, is the only new statute adopted by the Locrians for more than two hundred years." (Dem. 24 141)
This might be why "The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Law" (2015), edited by two professors specialising in Greek history and the Classics, describes the practice as "probably apocryphal" (2015, pg. 10):
Similar measures discouraging or altogether forbidding any changes in the laws are recorded by later sources for many mythical or semi-mythical archaic legislators: Diod. 12.17 reports that Charondas of Catania stipulated that whoever wanted to propose a revision of one of the existing laws should do so with his neck in a noose, and if the proposal were unsuccessful he should be hanged. The same rule is attributed by Dem. 24.139-41 (cf. also Polyb. 12.16.9-14) to Zaleucus of Locris. These stories, although found only in later sources and probably apocryphal, reveal that the Greeks of later periods viewed archaic legislation as a una tantum process usually accomplished by wise and authoritative lawgivers, by whom norms and laws were written down for ever, not to be changed or modified.
Professor of Greek studies, Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, discussed this practice in his journal article "Legends of the Greek Lawgivers" (1978), describing it as a "legend" within his study of "biographical anecdotes" (1978, pg. 207) :
It is worth noting that all the legends contain some provision to ensure the continuation of the original code in its original form. At Locri Zaleucus decreed that if anyone wished to introduce a new law or change one already in existence, he had to argue his case before the Council with a noose around his neck.
In summary, no evidence of the practice was found through my online searches. My answer, instead, has to fall back on the expertise of three professors in relevant fields, who could only offer anecdotal, second-hand evidence.
