Essay on "Hammurabi's Code Reflected the Mesopotamian Society of His Time"
Essay 4 pages (1359 words) Sources: 4 Style: MLA
[EXCERPT] . . . .
Code of Hammurabi:Influences on History and Contemporary Law and Society
In the 1700s B.C. Hammurabi managed to do what the modern state of Britain has still not attained to this day, create a written law. Probably the first example of a legal contract or laws that were written down to suggest that they could not be changed, even by rulers and kings, Hammurabi's code signified an important step in law, society, and politics for the human race as a whole. Based on this code, researchers can draw conclusions about law, politics, and society in ancient Mesopotamia and surrounding regions, knowledge that allows students of history to determine the roots of modern political and social orders such as law, the rule of law, and different types of political systems. In order to do this, however, students of history must examine both the impact of Hammurabi's code on his own society as well as the surrounding societies. After examining the affects of the ruler's code on both societies, one can determine the importance of the code on history, modernity, and the future.
While Hammurabi's code formalized the laws of the land by literally etching them in stone, it was not the first example of law and rule of law in Mesopotamian culture. According to Veenhof's book the Law's Beginnings, Hammurabi only put into writing what had been developing as part of an oral tradition for years. With crime, real estate, and other legal issues arising from the problem of urbanization, Mesopotamia would probably not have survived if some sort of oral legal system were not in place, and Veenhof aggress that he the absence of any legislation at all during this period is unlikely and i
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While the laws contained in Hammurabi's law affected Mesopotamian society both by setting forth an unbreakable, equal law for all and by encouraging further legal study, the laws similarly impacted neighboring cultures. Probably the culture and society that had the most contact with the Mesopotamians were the Jews with their Mosaic law. Remarkably, the Mosaic Law and Hammurabi's code are relatively similar. Both laws are reputedly gifts of the gods or god, punish severely crimes resulting from dishonesty, including bearing a false witness or falsifying evidence against another. Both laws also allow for capital and corporal punishment for a variety of crimes, allow for retaliation, and include different punishments for those of different classes ("Comparing the Codex"). Both the code of Hammurabi and the Mosaic law were descended from a "common morality: that was inspired by "human conscious" and the "knowledge provided by creation. Hammurabi's code, which came first, may have inspired some of Mosaic law, which focused on certain rights and wrongs, and both codes also acknowledged the existence of a God and the importance of animal sacrifice ("Theological Implications").
In the chronological history of law, the next major law or code put forth was that of the Christian ruler Justinian, whose law emerged around 500 a.D. While Hammurabi's code and the Mosaic law's primary purpose was… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "Hammurabi's Code Reflected the Mesopotamian Society of His Time" Assignment:
Hammurabi's code reflected the Mesopotamian society of his time. Indicate the major features of his society as they are reflected in the code and the similarities and differences with other ancient law codes. What were the advantages of such codes?
Use World Civilazation by Philip Lee Ralph as a source plus 3 other sources of your choice. Essays should be interpetive and analytical, and should be grounded in solid factual support and argument.
How to Reference "Hammurabi's Code Reflected the Mesopotamian Society of His Time" Essay in a Bibliography
“Hammurabi's Code Reflected the Mesopotamian Society of His Time.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2008, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/code-hammurabi-influences/8152069. Accessed 3 Jul 2024.
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