The Hammurabi Code

The Hammurabi Code

Introduction

The Hammurabi Code is one of the oldest laws of laws that exists, it appears written in a large trail of 2.25 meters high, was found in Susa, at the beginning of the 20th century by a French archaeological mission under the direction of JaquesFrom Morgan. At present, the wake is located in the Louvre Museum in Paris where it was taken in 1902. It is a legal compilation of existing laws made by King Hammurabi that reigned between 1792-1750 to.C. It consists of 282 laws recorded in 49 columns and is composed of three parts: prologue, epilogue and a long section in half with the 282 laws. 

Developing

Hammurabi is a pious king, concerned about the well -being of his society, are the gods in charge of giving Hammurabi the mission of making a legal system to prevent anyone from taking justice by their hand and limiting punishments for crimes committed. The body of the laws is written in a simple and conditional way, probably worked by bodies of jurists and poets of the Court would write the prologue and the epilogue. In the epilogue appears the reason for which it was written, ‘so that the fort cannot oppress the weak to give justice to the orphan and the widow’. 

And publicize justice throughout the empire, this wake was written around 1750 AC and located in the temple of Sippar, other equal copies were made that were distributed throughout the empire. Threats against those who dare to disobey these laws or destroy them are also appeared because they were eternal, the divinity being in charge of awarding the prize or punishment.

The purpose therefore of this code, as I have already indicated, was to unify the legal system in its empire and thus achieved a more solid administrative and governmental unification.

Because of its origin, it is a primary source of legal, economic and social content, which governed all aspects of the society of the time, which in addition to norms referring to the courts contained provisions on family, women and commerce. The well -known law of Talion was regulated, which is still in force in some Muslim countries. It was a code that allowed us to regulate human relationships. Actually, it can be said that it is a set of judicial sentences, given to particular cases, and that they were inspired by a spirit of equity. The code was motivated by social concerns.

We found a very hierarchical society that was divided into those who have legal status, which were the upper "awilum" class or free men, the "Mushkenum", free men, but with limitations and the "wardum" or slaves and those thatThey have no legal status, who came to be the prisoners of war, true slaves of the king and the State. The Code establishes protection for the weak, defending the small farmers of the exploitation of the landowners, determining wages, trusting fees, establishing price lists for doctors and veterinarians, and delimiting judicial functioning to court.

Each crime was adjusted to a penalty attending to a scale and that was based on the law of talion, "eye for an eye, tooth tooth" that is found (article 196 and 200). Who committed a crime was punished with a penalty equal to the damage caused, but only if they belonged to the same social class, I have already said that it was a highly hierarchical society and therefore equality was relative. The death penalty was frequent, even when they were minor crimes. Therefore, the issues of everyday life, wage labor, loans, inheritances, rentals, divorces, private property, were regulated so.

Uniform laws were therefore established that applied to specific cases and that way it was prevented that justice be taken by their hand. From the reading of the Hammurabi code, it follows how the situation of women in Babylon, their rights and obligations should be, the role of this must be submission to the male and their life must develop in their home and its main mission is thePlayer. The most important thing at that time was the social order, secondly it must be taken into account that the husband or father was the head of the family and also the legitimacy of the offspring was essential.

So the sexual freedom of women was limited, which did not happen with that of men and it is here that another case of inequality can be seen. Because if a married woman had relations with a man other than her husband, adultery was considered, while she was not considered as such in the case that a married man had extramarital relationships with other unmarried women. The woman was subjected to the husband’s authority and she had the right to correction about her. Any sexual relationship outside of marriage was hard, both for her and for the lover. 

There were laws that allowed the husband to take another secondary wife, a concubine or a slave in the event that the first was sterile, this second wife never had the same range as the first and could be sold if he tried to match the first. The woman, although she enjoyed broad legal capacity, had property entitled, but was always under the tutelage of a male, whether her husband, the father or another relative, they administered family assets, example of this and for the caseOf divorce, the woman recovered her dowry and if she died she passed her children, this dowry guaranteed her subsistence, but in no case administered her independently.

The woman was not matched to the male in public or family life. The daughters had no right to inheritance because part of those possessions had already been supposed toThe dowry. A series of laws were established to protect those women who sent, since in cases their situation was truly unfortunate, through these laws, aids were regulated with which a dignified life was guaranteed, in this way the wedding gifts were kept forThe husband’s death case.

They were allowed to live in the family home unless they decided to get married again, and in this case, he lost the wedding gifts and left the family home. A female figure of great importance in the economic life of Babylon is also described, the "naditum", were special priestesses with economic action, lent psata and grain and supplied capital for commercial expeditions. They lived and worked in the "agagum" or cloister and bought houses and properties that then leased in the same way the merchants did. They had the obligation to remain Celibal.

The "Sabitum" had its importance in the Babylonian era, because she was the owner of a very important establishment at the time, Trade or "Cervecera". In spite of everything, the Hammurabi code meant the regrouping of a control system that allowed satisfactorily regulating human relationships in a highly advanced society such as Babylonian.

In the current context we may seem to us a barbaric law and in some cases excessive, but however, it was one of the first limitations to punishments for minor crimes and prevent someone from taking justice by their hand because it was the State who had competenceTo administer justice to their subjects and who used the norm to intimidate and deter when committing a crime, in addition the code was motivated by social concerns and offered protection to the weak.

conclusion

I think that the code is a set of civilized laws, which must be valued in its context and time and not with our current values. The questionable thing about this law was that innocent people were punished for the crimes committed by others and was not really equitable because a free man did not have the same value as a slave, in the same way despite the fact that thewoman, she was quite discriminated. Equality was relative, because it was a very hierarchical society.

The superiority of the man was established although in my opinion there was some respect for women, always as I have said previously taking into account the values of the time and not in the current context. Neighboring civilizations copied the Hammurabi Code and currently the law of the Talion has not disappeared at all and in many Muslim countries it is still applied.