The document discusses several early legal codes from ancient civilizations including the Code of Ur-Nammu from Sumeria, the Code of Lipit-Ishtar from Mesopotamia, the Code of Hammurabi from Babylon, and Draco's laws from Athens. It provides details on the origins and contents of these early legal systems.
The document discusses several early legal codes from ancient civilizations including the Code of Ur-Nammu from Sumeria, the Code of Lipit-Ishtar from Mesopotamia, the Code of Hammurabi from Babylon, and Draco's laws from Athens. It provides details on the origins and contents of these early legal systems.
The document discusses several early legal codes from ancient civilizations including the Code of Ur-Nammu from Sumeria, the Code of Lipit-Ishtar from Mesopotamia, the Code of Hammurabi from Babylon, and Draco's laws from Athens. It provides details on the origins and contents of these early legal systems.
The document discusses several early legal codes from ancient civilizations including the Code of Ur-Nammu from Sumeria, the Code of Lipit-Ishtar from Mesopotamia, the Code of Hammurabi from Babylon, and Draco's laws from Athens. It provides details on the origins and contents of these early legal systems.
The Code of Ur-Nammu, dating back to 2100-2050 BCE, is the world's oldest known legal code, predating Hammurabi's famous code. Attributed to Sumerian king Ur-Nammu or his son Shulgi, it emphasized a sense of familial unity and societal order. Though incomplete, the code revealed the king's vision of law and order, with punishments mainly involving fines instead of harsh penalties. Ur-Nammu presented himself as a paternal figure, expecting his people to treat each other respectfully, using fines as reminders for lapses in behavior. The code showcased an early form of legal philosophy. • The Code • He recognized the power of religious beliefs to affect personal behavior and so presented his laws as having been received from the gods. He seems to have made sure people understood the king was only the administrator, not the author, of the code, and when someone broke the law, they were rebelling against the divine will. • The most ancient legislator known is Ur-Nammu, the founder of one of the Sumerian dynasties at the city of Ur. His code, dating from the middle of the 21st century BC, dealt with witchcraft, the flight of slaves, and bodily injuries. THE CODE OF LIPIT-ISHTAR COMPRISES LAWS ISSUED BY LIPIT-ISHTAR (REIGNED 1934 –1924 BCE (MC)), A RULER IN LOWER MESOPOTAMIA. THIS CUNEIFORM LAW IS INSCRIBED IN THE SUMERIAN LANGUAGE. FOLLOWING THE CODE OF UR -NAMMU, IT STANDS AS THE SECOND - OLDEST SURVIVING LEGAL CODE. NOTABLY, IT SURPASSES THE EARLIER CODE IN DETAIL AND INTRIC ACY.
• A more ample vestige of Sumerian law is the so-called Code of
Lipit–Ishtar (c. 1934–24 BC), which contains the typical prologue, articles, and epilogue and deals with such matters as the rights of persons, marriages, successions, penalties, and property and contracts. • Laws of Eshnunna into five groups. The articles of the first group had to be collected from all over the Laws and the articles of the other four were roughly ordered one after the other: • 1. Theft and related offences, • 2. False distraint, • 3. Sexual offences, • 4. Bodily injuries, • 5. Damages caused by a goring ox and comparable cases.
• The majority of these offences were penalized with pecuniary fines (an amount of silver), but some serious offences such as burglary, murder, and sexual offences were penalized with death. It seems that the capital punishment was avoidable (in contrast to the Code of Hammurabi), because of the standard formulation: “It is a case of life … he shall die”. • Code of Hammurabi, the most complete and perfect extant collection of Babylonian laws, developed during the reign of Hammurabi (1792–1750 BCE) of the 1st dynasty of Babylon. It consists of his legal decisions that were collected toward the end of his reign and inscribed on a diorite stela set up in Babylon’s temple of Marduk, the national god of Babylonia. These 282 case laws include economic provisions (prices, tariffs, trade, and commerce), family law (marriage and divorce), as well as criminal law (assault, theft) and civil law (slavery, debt). Penalties varied according to the status of the offenders and the circumstances of the offenses.
• The background of the code is a body of Sumerian law under which civilized communities had lived for many centuries. The existing text is in the Akkadian (Semitic) language, but, even though no Sumerian version is known to survive, the code was meant to be applied to a wider realm than any single country and to integrate Semitic and Sumerian traditions and peoples. Moreover, despite a few primitive survivals relating to family solidarity, district responsibility, trial by ordeal, and the lex talionis (i.e., an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth), the code was advanced far beyond tribal custom and recognized no blood feud, private retribution, or marriage by capture • Draco composed the city's first written law code with the aim of reducing arbitrary decisions of punishment and blood feuds between parties. Ultimately, though, the laws aided and legitimized the political power of the aristocracy and allowed them to consolidate their control of the land and poor. Famously harsh, the laws were ultimately replaced by Solon in 594 BCE. DRACO'S LAWS WERE KNOWN FOR THEIR CRUELTY AND THEIR BIAS TOWARDS THE RICH LANDOWNERS AS OPPOSED TO THOSE WHO FOUND THEMSELVES OWING MONEY.
About Death Penalty. Reflections on Legal History: From the Code of Hammurabi and Sumerian Precursors up to Gemanic Law, the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages
About Death Penalty. Reflections on Legal History: From the Code of Hammurabi and Sumerian Precursors up to Gemanic Law, the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages
