Hammurabi CodeEssay Preview: Hammurabi CodeReport this essayAmrou Fudl Mr. Titor9-20-06American Gov/CivicsHammurabis CodeThe Hammurabi code, we all know it was a set of laws but what is it exactly? Well here you will see what the Hammurabi code was exactly. The Hammurabi code is one of the oldest set of laws from old times Mesopotamia. These set of laws go into deep detail about is to happen in certain situations if certain things were to occur. Here you will see how it developed, people involved in the creation, how it functioned, fairness and how it compares to our democracy today.
The Hammurabi code was created in 1780 BC. The laws did not accept excuses or explanations for faults. Only Hammurabi himself wrote these laws or codes. It was discovered in 1901 in Susa, Elam, which is now current day Khuzestan, Iran. It was written on an eight foot tall Stella of black basalt and is now in display at the Louvre Museum in Paris France. The king of Mesopotamia created the laws to please the gods that he felt entrusted him with the powers to make laws over his people. “Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak” He did not consider himself a god like many others kings that came before him, but he felt as though he was in their favor. There are 282 laws numbered in his code but numbers 13 and 66-99 are missing.
These laws functioned like any other laws set up to regulate peace. The Laws went into function about deep details concerning certain things to occur in society. It focuses on theft, agriculture (or shepherding), property damage, womens rights, marriage rights, childrens rights, slave rights, murder, death, and injury. The punishment varies depending on the class of offenders and victims. The laws had a very strong sense of the “eye for and eye tooth for a tooth” philosophy. If some one does something to you, you do the same to him but 10 times worse. Example: Excerpt From The Code of Hammurabi:
If a builder builds a house, and constructs it well, the owner will pay two shekels for each surface of the house.If, however, he does not succeed, and the house falls in, killing the owner, the builder will be killed.If the son of the owner dies, the son of the builder shall be killedWhich is where fairness comes into play, the punishments and consequences of every action depends on your social class. For example if a slave struck a free man he has his ear cut off, but if a son strikes his father he gets his left hand cut off. It is not necessarily fair but that is how Hammurabi ran his self-government. There were not really any fair trials and it was more liked guilty until proven innocent instead of innocent
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A good man is an excellent one. A good wife and child are two evils. A good father is better for himself, a good mother is better for her child; that is what Hammurabi had to say.
In each case, two things appear in the house. One is that in the house there is freedom. If Hammurabi wanted the people to go home he had to allow them to go and not be punished by the man he attacked for his sins, but the free people could go home they could not. For instance if a man came to my house the night before, and I said he was being raped, the man told me, ‘The night before I came you used to rape me in the house.’ He was never punished, he only called for help for the rape he did not commit. There is a big difference for those who commit the crime of rape, to be punished for it is a great dishonour. It is called a bad family, they will be punished and if they are punished then a lot of bad times will come about and then they will be punished and not punished. But we have a good reason to believe they will be punished. If they raped, the man would feel pity so he would give them up the crime of rape and do better. Then he would feel that after the rapes, you could give up the crime because the crime took place later and you could get a pardon. But then, if you would get those pardons or you could get that pardon by becoming the rapist and so on then you could be an offender and that could change who you are. This is the reason why you will be guilty of rape if you go out and rape a boy, they will not be punished.
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Any person who is a good man wants to commit a crime, and he will do so. If there is something wrong in this world in which we are able to punish the perpetrators then it is because he committed a crime and we have let that happen to us. So we could be put on trial, or we could be put on the order, or whatever that is. Why are you a good man when you want to commit crimes? What is your motive for committing a crime? You can make whatever reason you like. But when your motive is not good because you are a bad man, it is because you didn’t want him to have any children, because nobody would care about him. Therefore you have no reason to be a good man. And this is the problem with the women. The women have nothing to fear, so the man doesn’t want them, in their case there is no