Hammurabi’s Code: Was it just?
Have you ever heard the saying “spare the rod, spoil the child” or “An eye for an eye”? King Hammurabi of Sin-Muballit was the 6th king of babylon and he did not like all of the chaos in his society. To fix this, he wrote a code of 282 laws that formed the order that he was looking for. In all the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The code of Hammurabi is not just. In life, we all need the sense of being alive and importance. In Hammurabi’s code, law #282, “ If a slave say to his master: "You are not my master," if they convict him his master shall cut off his ear.” A slave trying to free themselves is not really worth their master cutting his ear off, is it? Law #2, “If any
Do you know who is Hammurabi. Hammurabi was a king of babylonia, he ruled for 42 years. Hammurabi’s codes were a set of laws. The purpose of the code was too keep Mesopotamia safe. Hammurabi’s Code is unjust for two reasons: all the laws almost involve death also if anyone stealed then just take them to jail not kill them.
Hammurabi’s Code : Was It Just?I think Hammurabi's Code was Unjust because of the Family Laws.(Doc A)Below the prologue closer to the base, are 282 laws organized by theme including family life and agriculture.this is unjust because not everyone knew how to read or write so they couldn’t know these laws.(Doc B)it says the strong may not injure the weak then why when the mother or the son if he hits the man they shall be put to death or get their hands cut off and things like that.(Doc C) law 129:if a married lady is caught with another man,they shall be put to death but this is unjust because maybe the man still loves her and doesn't want another wife and who will do all the wife's duties like clean the house take care of the kids and cook the
If you were to rule over 1,000,000 people, how would you do it? Would you make laws that are very strict? Would you make very harsh punishments so that you could scare people into doing what you wanted? This is what Hammurabi had to deal with when he created 282 laws for the 1,000,000 people that he ruled over in Babylonia. This 282 law code was called “Hammurabi’s Code,” and the property laws along with the personal injury laws made his code fair, or in other words, just.
Hammurabi, the ruler of Mesopotamia, invented 282 laws approximately 4,000 years ago to obtain peace. In my opinion, Hammurabi’s Code was not just; it affected many families in a negative way, there were many other ways to resolve the problems presented, and most of the victims were treated unfairly. Foremost, Hammurabi’s Code separated families. For example, in Document C Law 129 when the son strikes his father there are more other responsible ways to punish the son other than cutting off his hands.
After thirty years of small feuds with other kings, Hammurabi wanted to settle down and keep Babylonia peaceful. Hammurabi ruled forty-two years about forty centuries ago. He was the King of Babylonia, the approximate length of Babylonia from Mari in the North to Larsa in the South was no more than fifty miles. The estimated population of Babylonia was about 1 million, out of that million each person belonged in one of the three social classes which were, landowners, free people who didn’t own land, and slaves. Hammurabi created a set of 282 laws carved on stele for the people of Babylonia called the Hammurabi’s Code, but were those laws fair to everyone in the Babylonian society.
Hammurabi's code was just, because it protected people and was fair. For most of the 282 laws in hammurabi's code they were in the best interest of helping and protecting the week, sick, poor, and the vast majority of babylonia. The laws were mostly fair to the people because usually the punishment was something of equal or greater harm than which the crime was committed. The only concern of mine is how harsh some laws were, because the punishment was way worse than the crime, but it was in a good cause so if the punishment was not death that the criminal was taught a good lesson, and if it was death the people didn't have to worry about the criminal that was killed because the criminal would be dead.
The nature of the cruelty in Hammurabi's Codex is surly according to the culture of people back in that period of time Criminal Law.
Nearly 4,000 years ago, a man named Hammurabi became king of babylonia. He ruled for 42 years. During that time, he became the ruler of much of Mesopotamia, which had an estimated population of 1,000,000 people or more. In his 38th year, Hammurabi made a set of 282 laws called a code that he had engraved on a stone stele. He did this to bring order and fairness to all. There has been some debate about the justness of this code. In my opinion, Hammurabi’s code was not just because of it’s family law, property law, and personal injury law.
In Document B it is claimed “That the strong might not injure the weak, in order to protect the widows and orphans…Let no destruction befall my monument… let my name ever repeated;let the oppressed, who has a case at law, come and stand before this my image as king of righteousness;...” Hammurabi is explaining that the laws were set up so that the weak were not hurt by the strong, but he contradicts himself because he is the strong one who is hurting the weak. The punishments that are executed do not match properly to the wrong deed that has been done. For example in Document C in Law 129: “If a married lady is caught ⦗in adultery⦘ with another man, they shall bind them and cast them into the water.” If a married lady cheats on her husband she is tied up and thrown in the water to drown. However in Law 148, “If a man has married a wife and a disease has seized her, if he is determined to marry a second wife, he shall marry her. He shall not divorce the wife whom the disease has seized. She shall dwell in the house they have built together and he shall maintain her as long as she lives.” A woman will be helplessly thrown in the river to drown if caught in adultery, but if a married man has decided that his first wife is not considered a deemable spouse anymore, he can move on to a second wife and still keep the first wife under his possession. This does not fit the criteria of making
Mesopotamia, “the Land between Rivers,” was one of the greatest and the oldest ancient civilizations of the world. This civilization flourished around 3000 B.C. on the piece of fertile land, now known as Iraq, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Before 1792 B.C., the city-states of ancient Mesopotamia were not united and constantly clashed in turmoil and warfare. In 1792 B.C., King Hammurabi conquered and merged the neighboring city states of ancient Mesopotamia, creating a Babylonian empire and becoming the sixth king of its capitol city, Babylon. During his reign, Hammurabi established law and order and funded irrigation, defense, and religious projects. He personally took care of and governed the administration. In
How would people feel if they had to follow the laws of Hammurabi’s code? Hammurabi was the king of Babylonia. Hammurabi started being king around 3500 BCE, and Hammurabi made 282 laws. Hammurabi’s Code was unjust based on the evidence from the codes Personal law, Property law, and Family law. Was Hammurabi’s code just?
But King Hammurabi has decided that if the surgeon has already caused one death, his hands shall be cut off so he cannot cause another death. Think about the best doctors in the world- even they may not have been able to save some patients lives, but their hands are never cut off- they improve their medicines and processes and help more people. Another law that proves Hammurabi’s Code is unjust partially because of laws under Personal Injury is Law 196. Law 196 states,”If a man has knocked out the eye of a free man, his eye shall be knocked out.” This is a one for one situation in which the man will get his eye knocked out if he ever knocks out the eye of a free man. The free man whose eye first got knocked out should receive money for medical bills, not the other man’s eye knocked out. He has no use for the offenders knocked out eye, even though the punishment is fair enough for the act. Alternatively, Law 199,” If he
The code of Hammurabi is the most remarkable and complete code of ancient law that we have. The code can be found on a stele, a stone slab usually to commemorate military victories in the ancient world. His code, a collection of 282 laws and standards, stipulated rules for commercial interactions and set fines and punishments to meet the requirements of justice. Most punishments resulting of death or loss of limb if a law was broken. The edicts ranged from family law to professional contracts and administrative law, often outlining different standards of justice for the three classes of Babylonian society. The Hammurabi Code was issued on the three classes of Babylonian Society, property owners, freemen and slaves. It was important as it organized the most civilized empire at that times , and Hammurabi made many copies of it and distributed them in the most important cities of the empire , so it represented a great progress to the human
The “Code of Hammurabi” is considered to be one of the most valuable finds of human existence. In fact its very existence created the basis for the justice system we have come to rely on today. The creation of “the Code” was a tremendous achievement for not only Babylonian society but for the entire Mesopotamian region as King Hammurabi was ruler over all of that area. Its conception can be considered to be the first culmination of the laws of different regions into a single, logical text. Hammurabi wanted to be an efficient ruler and realized that this could be achieved through the use of a common set of laws which applied to all territories and all citizens who fell under his rule. This paper will discuss the Hammurabi Code and the
The Hammurabi Code of Laws is a set of rules enacted by the Babylonian King whose name was Hammurabi. The Babylonian King created a total of two-hundred eighty-two punishments that the citizens will receive if they do not abide by the laws that were given to them. The king ruled from 1792 BC to 1750 BC. The Hammurabi Code of Laws is very violent in terms of punishments. For example, one of the laws are “If anyone breaks into a house to steal, he will be put to death before that point of entry and be buried there (walled into the house)”. This is a clear example of how violent and inhumane the punishments of the Babylonians were, to us at least. This essay will be explaining a set of laws from the Hammurabi’s Code of Laws.