Hammurabi Code: The Laws That Shaped The World

The Code of Hammurabi was one of the earliest and most complete written legal codes, and was proclaimed by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, who reigned from 1792 to 1750 BC.

Hammurabi was the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon and his famous law code served as a model for others, including the Mosaic Law. Following his initial conquest, he was the first ruler to successfully govern all of Mesopotamia without rebellion.

The collection of laws and regulations carved into stone thousands of years ago carries principles and ideas that are still applied today.

Historians describe the Hammurabi code as a surviving symbol of an ancient Mesopotamian system for solving disputes, punishing crimes and regulating business practices, which was an early influence upon the development over many centuries of the systems of laws and courts that govern the US and other modern societies.

The code also depicts an ancient Mesopotamian legal system with principles that are still followed in our courtrooms. The code mandates, for example, that in order to find someone guilty of a crime, evidence needs to be gathered and proof established. The ‘innocent until proven guilty’ theme resonates with us.

The US Supreme Court building features Hammurabi on the marble carvings of historic lawgivers that lines the south wall of the courtroom.

The Mesopotamians had a system that put a lot of emphasis on getting to the truth of a case, through the use of witnesses, oral testimony, and written evidence, and by having individuals swear oaths that they were telling the truth.

The Hammurabi stele is topped by a carving that depicts the king receiving the laws from Shamash, the Mesopotamian sun deity, who also served as the judge of both gods and men. That origin story helped to promote Hammurabi’s image as a ruler whose power was derived from the gods. But in reality, his code evolved from existing laws and previous court cases.

The Hammurabi code of laws, a collection of 282 rules, established standards for commercial interactions and set fines and punishments to meet the requirements of justice. Hammurabi’s Code was carved onto a massive, finger-shaped black stone stele (pillar) that was looted by invaders and finally rediscovered in 1901. You can now see it in the Louvre, Paris.

The 282 edicts are all written in if-then form. For example, if a man steals an ox, then he must pay back 30 times its value. 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 propertied class, freedmen and slaves.

A doctor’s fee for curing a severe wound would be 10 silver shekels for a gentleman, five shekels for a freedman and two shekels for a slave. Penalties for malpractice followed the same scheme: a doctor who killed a rich patient would have his hands cut off, while only financial restitution was required if the victim was a slave.

Did you know? The Code of Hammurabi includes many harsh punishments, sometimes demanding the removal of the guilty party’s tongue, hands, breasts, eye or ear. Some of Hammurabi’s laws might seem excessively harsh, and even barbaric today — selling stolen property and building a defective house that collapsed were both punishable by death, for example, and the penalty for a slave who denied a master’s authority was to have an ear amputated.

But the code is also one of the earliest examples of an accused person being considered innocent until proven guilty. But there are others that suggest care and responsibility for marginalized groups. For example, we see in Hammurabi’s code what could be considered the earliest alimony payments. Alimony payments are legally mandated monetary transfers from one ex-spouse to another to support the lifestyle of the other.

Although other subsequently-discovered written Mesopotamian laws, including the Sumerian “Lipit-Ishtar” and “Ur-Nammu,” predate Hammurabi’s by hundreds of years, Hammurabi’s reputation remains as a pioneering lawgiver who worked — in the words of his monument — ”to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak and to see that justice is done to widows and orphans.”

The code is also significant because it promotes the notion that justice ought to be fair and impartial. Through the code, Hammurabi conveyed that he was a king who wanted to ensure that anyone — not just the rich and powerful, but even the poor — could obtain justice. It’s an idea that modern justice still strives to achieve, even if it doesn’t always succeed.