Compare And Contrast The Code Of Hammurabi

During the time of ancient Greece, Hammurabi is the best known and most celebrated of all Mesopotamian kings. He ruled the Babylonian Empire from 1792-50 B.C.E. As he conquered other cities and his empire grew, he saw the need to unify the groups he controlled so he compiles a list of laws.

Hammurabi's code of laws was written in a stone monument that stood approximately seven feet tall and was called a stele, where the upper portion showed a picture of Hammurabi standing in front of a seated sun god. Hammurabi's code included more than two hundred and thirty-two laws, most resulting in a punishment of death or loss of limb if a law was broken The Code of Hammurabi was not the first Mesopotamian law code, it is the most complete. The law code

developed by King Hammurabi had a seemingly cruel and unusual system of punishment. This laws was called the code of Hammurabi. The substructure of Hammurabi’s law is that of equal retaliation, commensurable to the Semitic law of “an eye for an eye.” The law offers protection to all classes of Babylonian society; it seeks to protect the impotent and the poor, including women, children, and slaves, against iniquity at the hands of the opulent and potent. This has several parallels to our laws today; they were engendered to protect all people equipollent, opulent, or poor, ebony or white, and accordingly. There additionally is a very significant contrast with our laws, in that most penalization today isn’t as rigorous.
Hammurabi’s laws were very strict. In the sense of how criminals were being punished for their crimes. For example, look how death is so easily rendered as punishment. At the rate in which their citizens were killed due to petty crimes i wonder if there would be much left. However, in today’s law, the only crime that condemns a criminal to death are capital crimes. And even in some states in the US for example the death penalty has been abolished. But during the time of Hammurabi’s law, even people who simply stole were put to death. As stated in the sixth law “anyone who steals shall be put to death.” today petty theft is consider as a minor offence better known as larceny. In addition, once a person is accused of a crime they would threw them self into the Euphrates river and if they did not drown then that person would be considered innocent. If that person drowns, then they were guilty. Religion was important to Mesopotamians and they thought the gods would save the person if they hadn’t committed the crime. Obviously, swimming had not been discovered yet
Although, a similarity in the two set of laws is that they both punish criminals. We can talk about how harsh the judgement and punishment were on the citizens but a good citizen should not break the law. Maybe, if the laws where as strict a as they were during Mesopotamia we would have less crime rate in the US. Another difference between the two set of laws are barbaric nature of its laws. For example, Hammurabi’s code number 195 states that “if a son strikes his father, his hands shall be hewn (cut) off. Or another law of Hammurabi which states that if a man kills another man’s son, his son shall be cut off. Today, no such policies exist. This policy is best described as an eye for an eye policy as I reveal earlier, which is no l in use today. Today, we are not required to take the law into our hands or seek any form of revenge because the person we be charged equally as criminal.
Hammurabi's code may not seem very different from more recent laws and presidents that guide the processes of a trial. But there are a few major differences between ancient Babylon and today's laws. Hammurabi's code required accusers to bring the accused to court by themselves. Unlike today's society the law requires the accused to show up to court. The Code created the basis of today’s legal systems. The simplest one being the court system, where the accused is judged and sentenced/acquitted. One of the more specific lasting details today is the “innocent until proven guilty” idea. Instead of just throwing accused people in jail, evidence was required.
One may say law code is not really considered as a law in today’s perspective; it’s more like the ideas and regulations of the king he judged different cases, he judges based on status or wealth.

Indeed, a major difference between the modern law and Hammurabi’s law code, modern law is all about equal rights and justice while Hammurabi laws was more in favor of people with higher status. People with higher social status were not punished as harshly as people with lower status. Therefore, people were still discriminated and stratified. This reveals that the purpose of the law code and the modern law are ultimately different. Unlike the modern law, Hammurabi’s law code was not to protect everyone fairly, but merely to regulate the society and to keep it in order so that his reign was

stable.
A similarity between the two laws is that they are both written laws. therefore, no one can claim that they were not of aware of the law required from its citizens. Hammurabi’s code of law was written in stones and tablets. Today laws write in a book called the constitution. Which is available to all.
The possibility of inheriting another man’s property legally over trial.

Like as stated in the second law of Hammurabi’s law that “if anyone brings an accusation against a man and he turns out that he not guilty he shall take the possession of the accuser. In today’s law, no such thing exists. Well however, if a citizen damages another citizen’s property he his only required to pay back in cash.

Both laws have an instruction for judges, police officers and witnesses to follow. Although the consequences for errors made by the enforcers of the law are much more severe than the laws of today. Like the law states that if a judge is found to try someone wrongly, and the fault being his, he would be put to death. And witnesses to were put to death for wrong accusing. But it the modern law it is simply called lying under oath and the consequence for that is a short spell in prison.

In conclusion, the two societies have their differences and their similarities. But to some it all up, one would say that the major difference between the two systems is that Hammurabi’s laws are very harsh on its citizens to say the least. The Code of Hammurabi has had lasting impacts throughout time. The high level of organization that was created by the Code was successfully replicated in multiple civilizations which has ultimately lead to where human civilization is

now.