Research Paper On The Code Of Hammurabi

Hammurabi was a successful and fruitful ruler because he was strict, organized, and fair. He achieved order and structure mainly due to the set of laws he wrote. Before Hammurabi’s Code, there was no social structure, no organization and no centralized government. Hammurabi figured out how to structure the world's first code of laws and build up Babylon as the prevailing and effective Amorite city of its ideal time. Hammurabi’s code of strict laws was a justified system because it kept order with simple and stern rules that helped Hammurabi lead a very structured society.

In the article, "Hammurabi of Babylon," Augusta McMahon states: “It is also useful to be reminded that the 'laws' are better categorized as suggestions and reactions to social

situations than as a blanket 'code' of law” (531). However, law codes are vital to the existence of cities. In small settlements where most of its people are bound by kinship, disagreements and fights can be handles by their elders. In cities, where strangers must cooperate, battles must be arbitrated in an unbiased manner. Law codes provide a clear set of rules to objectively settle and resolve disputes.
Laws that had been arranged into different areas was a first in history. This configuration of organization was imitated by many others and would continue to do so up to present day society. For instance, Semitic societies succeeding Hammurabi's rule utilized some of his laws and were incorporated into Hammurabi's code. Hammurabi's strategy for thought is obvious in present day social orders which are affected by his code. Present day governments create certain laws and are placed into their appropriate group of similar laws.
By modern standards, Hammurabi’s law code might seem severe and unfair. The punishments for many crimes is death, and not all human beings are treated similarly, with different rules and punishments for women, the poor, and slaves. In an article out of Harvard Law Review, Professor Maitland states:
While this may be the ‘Oldest Code of Laws in the World,’ it is very far from being the most archaic. It may come to us from the third millennium B. C., but we find ourselves doubting whether our English ancestors at the end of the first millennium A. D. were not in many important respects the worshippers of the Sun-God. Naturally we find the idea of retaliation very prominent: punishment in criminal and in many civil cases is based upon the principle of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’. (Maitland 506)
However, even though Hammurabi’s code can be strict, at other times, the code is astonishingly compassionate to these same groups.

For instance, if a man divorces a wife who has given him a child, he must not only return her dowry but he must deliver financial support for raising the child.

Hammurabi's code of law is huge in how it was written. The straightforward dialect used to write the Code permitted the average individual from Babylonian culture to comprehend and understand what was expected of them. Each of 282 laws were written independently with particular examples of indiscretions and unlawful activities that were illegal, and the exact type of discipline that would happen if they broke these laws. The Code additionally sets rules for the charges and fees that were paid to specialists, veterinarians, shipbuilders, ferryboat administrators, and to the proprietors of leased animals.

Hammurabi made some key presumptions while composing his laws. He expected that the individuals from his kingdom have similar morals and ethics that he does. He wrote the code as though everybody will agree with every law composed, and makes no arrangement for individuals from society to disagree with him. Hammurabi also expected that the punishment he endorses will be sufficient to discourage unlawful acts and avoid repeat crimes. While recommending the incentives given to specialists, Hammurabi made presumptions about how much money it would take to urge specialists to hone pharmaceutical

and shipbuilders to build ships.
Hammurabi’s code is tit-for-tat, meaning that what you do to someone else often gets done to you in return.

Hammurabi made sure that justice was always served and objectivity governed. Hammurabi desired a strong and structured society, and the laws helped him achieve this goal. Laws play a major role in the development of a nation. Justice is the protection of those laws from an impartial standpoint. King Hammurabi managed to organize one of the first best preserved set of laws from ancient Babylonian times.

Despite the fact that the punishments were not the same as those of today, the government is still comparative. Presently, punishments are issued through the state's law enforcement, tantamount to the way punishment was resolved and authorized in old Babylon. In Hammurabi's code, wrongdoings deserving of death required a trial before a seat of judges. This includes violations that were: polygamy, incest, kidnapping, infidelity and

burglary.
Whatever its oddities, Hammurabi’s code signifies a huge step forward in advancement for civilization. In the journal article, “The American Law Register (1898-1907),” E.H.B states: “The Hammurabi Code " carries back the history of law for a thousand years or more," and, as Dr. W. H. Ward says in the Century Magazine for July, 1903, " beyond all doubt . . . is the most important document for the history of civilization that has been discovered in many years. . . . It tells us how strong was the sense of justice at a period which we have been too ready to regard as wholly barbaric” (599). The code is preserved on a stone stele, covered on both sides with 35,000 lines of text listing nearly 282 laws, as well as prologue and an epilogue. At the top is a relief carving depicting Hammurabi standing before the god Shamash, god of both sun and of justice.
Hammurabi came a long way from the beginning of his reign toward the end. He emerged as a leading figure in southern Mesopotamia and built a great empire centered at Babylon. In the journal article, "The Flooding of Esnunna, the Fall of Mari: Hammurabi's Deeds in Babylonian Literature and History,” Matthew Rutz, et al. states: “Hammurabi began his forty-three-year reign as a local ruler in control of a middling polity that remained in the shadow of more powerful local and regional players, particularly the kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia, Esnunna, Larsa, and Elam, but by the end of his reign, the political landscape of greater Mesopotamia had been completely transformed” (21). He not only provided the oldest collection of surviving legal codes in the world but he also established that some laws are so fundamental that they apply to everyone.
The principle of the law is to check against the arbitrary use of or abuse of power and it is a feature of most modern legal systems. Hammurabi’s code addresses the issue of justice and remarkably established certain civil rights, such as freedom of speech and protection under the law, which as stated before, included provisions for widows and daughters:
To the students of the history of jurisprudence and to the jurists the work has this interest, it contains a wealth of material bearing on all phases and kinds of civil and criminal controversies, and embraces most interesting and instructive survivals in respect of tribal, family, and religious laws, and many indications of transitional stages in legal procedure and usage. There are elaborate provisions bearing on property rights, banking, wages, land rents, prices, transportation, trade, building, irrigation, and with great care, it seems, has the status of master and servant been defined, as well as the position of husband and wife, both bond and free. (E.H.B 599)
Hammurabi was one of the greats who helped established the groundwork for our future laws and regulations.
Hammurabi was an organized leader and followed Sumerian tradition and his code was brought together by customary laws, yet royal judges were expected to apply the laws throughout the empire, and Hammurabi connected the throne with the administration of justice. Hammurabi spent forty years of his reign bringing states under his control. However, he did inherit some advantages from his predecessors. For instance, a service aristocracy was already in place.
Regardless, Hammurabi was relentless and had meticulous attention to detail with made him a
very skilled diplomat.
Most of Hammurabi’s code consisted of civil law, not criminal law, which by this, showed the code’s sophistication. The rules of adoption, divorce, and inheritance were very complicated, mainly those affecting women and their rights to administer property. The code of laws were wide-ranging, and would be received by the other peoples of the Middle East, who would then create their own legal systems based on that code.