Viewing the laws across the world
An organized society is one that has strong law codes and a unified government. In order for a culture to survive and succeed, it must have strong law codes that keep the society from falling apart. Roman and Israeli law codes, for example were an important factor in establishing their societies. Through strict and detailed law codes the cultures blossomed and became widespread throughout the world, known for their both lengthy empires. Regarding specific laws, criminal law kept the cultures safe and protected in their own ways. Death and theft took a major toll in the lives of the Israelis and Romans, however both cultures had different methods of stopping the problems that ensued. These organized societies
…show more content…
The 613 commandments that were present in the torah consisted of 365 negative commandments and 248 positive commandments collectively called the mitzvot (The 613 Commandments). The number of commandments was formed by Rabbi Rambam, doctor and philosopher. The negative commandments come from the days in the solar year, while the positive commandments coincide with the organs and bones in the human body (Rich). The commandments were put into place for people to run in a coherent way and for there to be no conflict. Many Jews believed the mitzvahs were written by God and were given to the Jews at Mt. Sinai when they escaped Egypt through the Red Sea. For the Jewish culture, the Torah was the most prominent way to share …show more content…
The laws in the Torah reflect differently on Israel than on Rome. The commandments state that you can not steal money stealthily, kidnap, or commit injustice with scales and weights. The court must only implement punitive measures against the thief (Rich). This reflects against the culture proving that life-threatening situations such as theft and kidnapping are not given as much weight as they are in the Roman Twelve Tables. Israelis were in control of their own lives: either stay on the path of God or disobey and eventually God will provide punishment. The Israelites have proven to have many more rules, but yet do not show to grasp the idea of living under the law, they only know how to live under God. The laws of the Torah are based upon God’s rulings and mandates about rewards and punishment unlike the Roman law which strictly discusses human interaction. Punishments for the Jews were brought upon by the Almighty, not necessarily by the enforcers
Throughout time, it has been said that the Romans have made some major contributions when it came to Western civilization. A plethora of the contributions were in the categories of the law and engineering. In the law field, Romans left behind a great legacy for Western civilization, for instance one contribution being their Twelve Tables. The Twelve Tables established written rules of criminal and civil law. Not only with the Twelve Tables, but they developed the distinction between public law in which the state is concerned directly and private law which involves disputes between persons, the process of making laws has also had an influence on modern democratic political systems. During the Roman Republic, lawmaking was a bicameral activity and legislation was passed by an assembly of the citizens. It was then approved by the representatives of the upper class, or the senate, and issued in the name of the senate and the people of Rome. Many countries like the United States have adopted the republican Rome as a reproduction for their own governments.
Our ideas about laws and philosophy are borrowed from those of Justinian’s code, which was the main set of laws of the empire. For example, the Declaration of Independence says the “unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Doc. D) This is similar to the “maxims of law... to live honestly, to hurt
Who decided what was right or wrong and how order would be made in ancient societies? There couldn 't have just been a constitution that everyone followed in the beginning of time. People of ancient times must have come to some agreement to keep everyone well governed to prevent chaos and destruction to society. While undefined, I believe that most theorists addressed social order by defining social rules and ways of living that were believed to be fair for all. Such theorists as Aristotle, Hammurabi and Machiavelli were some of the many who had their own opinions on how the believed, “Government” per-say was created and how it should be ran.
Hunt discusses the way in which Ancient Greece and Rome forced many people into slavery and created many treatises in order to organize society by decree of ideology. Society had to be structured in order to properly operate, as Diamond conveys the idea that ideologies must be present for the society to have structural integrity. Once again, in chapter 14, Diamond discusses the importance of ideology as groups structure in bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. As groups progress and evolve their ideologies, society advances and allows prosperity and welfare among the people. On the contrary, Hunt discusses the importance of custom and tradition within medieval societies. Many of these societies lacked the central authority that allowed for organization, so many systems were based off the mutual obligations and services of the people. This allowed for various ideologies to facilitate the advancement of society as their changes altered the changes of society. Thus, the medieval societies required much attentiveness to following ideology in order to operate on a sound
The Web. The Web. 23 Nov. 2014. The "Roman Legal Tradition and the Compilation of Justinian."
7. "Law of the Twelve Tables." Britannica School High. Britannica Digital Learning, n.d. Web. 3 May 2014. .
The Ten Commandments are the first ten of the six hundred and thirteen commandments given by God to the Jewish people. The Ten Commandments built a foundation for Jewish ethics, behavior, and responsibility, which are still followed in numerous religions to this day. The Ten Commandments
The commandments of the Torah contain: the 613 Mitzvot, Ten Commandments, Oral Torah and the Covenant. The 613 Mitzvot provides the widest administration of Jewish ethical principles, which are regarded as the basis of Jewish ethics. The Ten Commandments are a summary of the 613 Mitzvot. The first five commandments discuss the relationship between God and Jewish people, whereas the next five com...
It represented an effort to obtain a written and public code that patrician magistrates could not alter at will against plebeian litigants. Little is known of the actual content of the Twelve Tables; the text of the code has not survived, and only a few fragments are extant, collected from allusions and quotations in the works of authors such as Cicero. From the fragments it is apparent that numerous matters were treated, among them family law, delict (tort, or offense against the law), and legal
Due to some of the conservative elements, as well as the oral tradition common in Ancient Greek societies, it is thought that some, if not many, of the laws present in the code have been passed down from previous generations. Consequently, it can be inferred that due to the post hoc nature of the text in addition to oral tradition, many of the laws of the code could have been influenced by other
In the year 499 A.D. Rome's government leaders came together to form the first Roman laws put into writing, the Twelve Tables. The Twelve Tables resembles the U.S. constitution and how they came together to make the law. The Romans established a republic, which is similar to the U.S. democracy. The major difference is that in a democra...
The twelve tables are a document during 451 to 450 B.C. it was one of the earliest attempts of creating code of law so it’s basically the roman law each table is responsible for a section in the law for example table one is the law pertaining to procedure for the courts and trials this part in the document states that the prosecutor summons the defendant to court they have to attend what I took from this part of the roman law was that fair justice was a
Due to the constraint of the plebeians, the council of decemviri “was created with the task of regularizing and publishing the laws” (Spielvogel 118). The outcome of this was the creation of the Twelve Tables, published around 450 B.C. which only “led to further agitation from the plebeians” (Spielvogel 118). The benefits of this were t...
He was commonly known as Justinian the Great and also Saint Justinian the Great in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The 12 tables was the basis for Justinian's Code. It was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law The 12 tables was the earliest attempt by the Romans to create a code of law was the Laws of the Twelve Tables the
Likewise, the- principle of the laws through the church, which the “Roman