Codification of Laws

Ancient Codes

In ancient times, legal systems focused primarily upon the issues that societally seemed to be the most pressing. Accordingly, ancient laws concentrated on matters such as protecting private property, suppressing violent crimes, maintaining civil peace, and enforcing accepted moral standards like those concerned with family relations and religious observances. Individual laws were created as the need for them was perceived, but as they accumulated, it became difficult to be aware of all that might be applicable. Law codes were established, often by local rulers, to be more accessible and understandable to the populace. The scope of laws gradually expanded, such that it is difficult to find any areas of human conduct that are not, in some way at least, regulated by legal codes.

The Code of Hammurabi was carved in Akkadian cuneiform upon a black stone stele so that all who read it would know what was expected of them. It publicly proclaimed an entire body of laws that were arranged in organized groupings. Like many ancient codes, it began with an invocation to divine authority. Hammurabi was a king of Babylon who ruled from about 1728 b.c.e. to 1686 b.c.e. He ruled an empire stretching from Nineveh on the Tigris River to the Persian Gulf. Anyone within his kingdom could read it and know what the laws of the land were, including particular punishments for respective violations, several of which carried the death sentence. However, special laws applied only to select members of Babylonian society who had particular obligations such as nuns or physicians. Although the Code of Hammurabi is the best known, it was not the earliest Mesopotamian code of laws. Earlier Mesopotamian law codes that could have served as precedents for that of Hammurabi have been found, such as the Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu from about 2050 b.c.e., one from Isin codified by Lipit-Ishtar around 1800 b.c.e., and another in Akkadian from Eshnunna.

Mosaic law of the ancient Hebrews, as presented in the Old Testament, has been shown to have been influenced by Mesopotamian law codes; indeed, both list specific punishments for respective offenses with proportionality used as a guiding moral principle of punishment. The Mosaic Code, although said to be collected and codified by Moses, is claimed to have been written by God. Breaches of the Mosaic Code, accordingly, offend God, and all crimes are regarded as sins. The Mosaic Code is said to have been promulgated around 1250 b.c.e. The Mishnah, a collection of existing traditions and oral law, was a later (redacted ca. 220 c.e.) codification of Jewish Halakha law. These sorts of codes were attempts to reduce laws to a consistent and uniform whole.

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