Hammurabi's Legal Code

Hammurabi’s Legal Code

Before we can judge the legitimacy of Hammurabi’s Legal Code we must first take a look at the time in which they were made. Hammurabi’s codes were one of the first laws made meaning this was something new and different. And although we may think the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” mentality is bizarre, back then in was considered the ideal and fair way to deal with certain situations.

Throughout the laws we can see a pattern, both the accuser and the accused have rights. For an example, in the second law if you accuse someone of a crime you may take him or her to trial but if they decide that the accusation is false than the accuser will be punished. This would eliminate false accusations and pointless cases because people wouldn’t accuse without reason.

Theses laws made the people of Babylonia in a sense more civilized. They couldn’t do things without thinking of the consequences. If they were working on something and that something would damage the property of their neighbors they would have to pay for the damage. A sense of responsibility enters the minds of the Babylonians requiring them to be responsible in their everyday activities in order to avoid punishments.

There are a few laws that caught me by surprise in a good way because of the way

they respect women. Even though it is very little its still a significant amount compared to what I expected which was nothing. The 137th law is a great example of this, it states that if a man separates from his wife he must give her enough to be able to raise her children and then the woman re marry who ever she wants. To think that this was thousands of years ago and there are still places today in which women do not have the same rights is quite remarkable.