- an ancient preserved law code created in 1790 BC
- in ancient Babylon
- a great source of information about the society, religion, economy & history of the period
- contained 282 laws in Akkadian language
- each part describes in detail a crime or an incident
- punishments were designed to fit the crimes as people must be responsible for their actions
- to represent a king's belief in justice & maintain control of the empire
- several laws were written to protect the poor & powerless
- reinforced 'an eye for an eye' mentality (therefore, very brutal in terms of punishment) (it means that whoever disobey the laws, like killing someone, the person shall be punished in the same way)
- punishments differed based on a person's social class. The higher the class of the victim, the stiffer the penalty (because they are educated)
- Hammurabi was a Babylon ruler and this code is based on his name
1. If a man has a deceased wife and desired to take a second wife, he shall not put his wife with disease away. He shall keep her in his house and support her as she lives.
2. If someone is lazy to keep his dam in proper condition until the dam break and all the field flooded, he should pay to replace the corn which he caused to be ruined.
3. If he broke another man's bone, his bone shall be broken
THE IMPORTANCE
- set the first written law in human history
- first ever written legal document
- teaches us about Mesopotamian society (class division, political and economic factors)
- the basis of our modern day legal code
- a government should provide protection & justice for its citizen
- society should run by a rule of law that applied to all people
- by placing the laws on public monuments, everyone could read the laws & know the punishments for breaking them
- the law was written in the language that everyone could read and understand
- made the whole idea of enforcing laws
TWELVE TABLE
- first written code of law in Rome. It was a basis of all future Roman Laws
- Plebians demand laws of Rome to be written down because of the unfair acts of the patricians (patricians controlled the government & plebeians had no voice)
- laws were carved on twelve bronze tablets
- displayed in the Roman Forum for everyone to see so they could be understood by all the citizens of Rome
- the Forum was the Rome's public meeting place. Also known as the "heart of Rome" where people went there to meet, shop and chat
- established that all free citizens had the right to be treated equally by the legal system
- written 450Bc in Latin language
- use the idea of "innocent until proven guilty"
- to ensure the rights of the lower classes
THE IMPORTANCE
- become a model for later civilization
- all people are equal under the law
- the burden of proof rests with the accuser, not the accused
