Custom essays on The Code of Hammurabi

From the content of codification there can be distinguished only three types of crimes: against the person, property, and against the family. Among crimes against personality, the Code of Hammurabi mentions manslaughter (willful is not mentioned); such crimes include, for example, actions of the person who has built a house that collapsed and caused the death of the owner. The same responsibility has the doctor who caused the death of a person as a result of the operation. The Code of Hammurabi has a detailed description of various types of self-mutilation: the damaged eye, tooth and bone. In all cases, when determining the penalty, the principle of Talion works: the perpetrator perceives the same fate as the victim. In the case of causing injuries, the offender is charged with a certain fee (King 2007).
The property crimes, according to the Code are the theft of livestock and slaves. The criminal actions are harboring the slaves, and withdrawal from the stigma of slavery. The Code of Hammurabi differentiates such crimes as theft and robbery. For all property crimes there were severe penalties. It was either death or mutilation (cutting off the hand), or a huge fine, many times exceeding the value of the stolen. Failure to pay such a penalty was followed by the death. Among the crimes that undermine the foundations of the family, the Code distinguishes adultery (only form the wife’s side), incest (relationships between mother and son, father and daughter). The actions which undermine the paternal authority are called the crimes (the son who hit his father loses his hands). Types of penalties set by the Code are defined by their purpose – revenge. Therefore, determining the punishment, the legislation is often guided by the principle of Talion. The main type of punishment is the death penalty in various ways: burning, drowning, amputation of hands, cutting off fingers, tongue, etc.; fines, banishments and other.
There is not so much written about the trial law in Hammurabi’s Code. Pleadings were going public on the porch of the temple. Judicial functions were implemented by special professional official, but there were also some judicial board, consisting of “the oldest and most famous people of the city.” The priests were involved in process only when they took an oath of witnesses.
In difficult cases, judges committed the oath in front of the statues of gods (Shamash and Marduk). The highest court was the king (Hooker 1996).
The process was the same as for criminal and civil cases. It began with a statement of the victim. The means of evidence were the testimony, oath, ordeal (The Code of Hammurabi mentions the water test). The rules of procedural law required judges to “investigate the matter” personally. The judge could not change his decision. If he did, he paid a fine 12 times more than the amount of the claim mount, and deprived his seat without the right to judge ever.
The Codex of Hammurabi is the collection of moral precepts, or report of the king to the gods with a description of those cases that were deciphered by Hammurabi – this is how historians thing, without coming to consensus. These laws give historians a broad picture of the life of ancient Babylon.
In general, the Code of Hammurabi was meant to maintain the existing life and, according to some historians, to prevent changes in society.
Conclusion

The Code of Hammurabi, is a Babylonian code of laws, created by the end of the reign of Hammurabi around 1760 BC. It is the most important monuments of the ancient oriental slave law. The original text of the law written in cuneiform on dioritic stele was found in 1901-02 during excavations at the site of the ancient capital of Elam – City of Susa, where it was apparently abducted by elamityane people as a war trophy.

The Code of Hammurabi is formed from the Sumerian legal tradition and is one of the most important sources for the study of law and socio-economic structure ofMesopotamiaof that time. The focus of the laws is based on business, economic and family relations. The code helps to restrict and regulate the private property relations, and allege state control over the economic life.