Hammurabi Code Dbq

Hammurabi's Code was a collection of codes or guidelines of which the people of

Mesopotamia back during the Bronze age followed religiously. This collection of laws is most

famous for it's efficiency due to it's level of harshness and simplicity. Although there are many

laws, some very specific, within Hammurabi's Code; the main essential principle to take from it

is "an eye for an eye." This means that if a life is taken, another is taken in return. In the event of

theft, the thief must compensate for what he took and more. Even though this may seem like a

barbaric way of handling heinous acts to modern society, the truth of the matter is that it was

effective. The people that lived during the Bronze age were people of a simpler

For fear of having their hands cut off from

a surgery gone astray, the physicians are now less prone to make mistakes by making sure

everyone during the operation goes correct. Imagine today's society adopting the main principle

of Hammurabi's Code. There would be a lot less repeated offenses and accidents.

The 10th law of the code states that “If the purchaser does not bring the merchant and the

witnesses before whom he bought the article, but its owner bring witnesses who identify it, then

the buyer is the thief and shall be put to death, and the owner receives the lost article.” This law

refers mainly to theft. If someone is accused of stealing an item and convicted, their punishment

is death and the owner is then awarded the item that was stolen from him or her. If today’s

society is able to adopt this doctrine, the sheer numbers of robbery and theft would go down

drastically. The reason those crimes are so often repeated today is because the punishment is not

adequate enough to fit the crime. If a thief is convicted of stealing, what is to stop him from

doing it again besides a few days in jail and a fine?

Consequently, today's society is too complex to be able to adopt Hammurabi's Code.