Examples Of Hammurabi Dbq

The Hammurabi Code of Laws is a set of rules enacted by the Babylonian King whose name was Hammurabi. The Babylonian King created a total of two-hundred eighty-two punishments that the citizens will receive if they do not abide by the laws that were given to them. The king ruled from 1792 BC to 1750 BC. The Hammurabi Code of Laws is very violent in terms of punishments. For example, one of the laws are “If anyone breaks into a house to steal, he will be put to death before that point of entry and be buried there (walled into the house)”. This is a clear example of how violent and inhumane the punishments of the Babylonians were, to us at least. This essay will be explaining a set of laws from the Hammurabi’s Code of Laws.

Thousands of years ago a King Hammurabi wrote a set of 282 laws called Hammurabi’s Code to protect the weak. Hammurabi’s Code was just by it protecting the family. In addition, it protected the property by helping people in need. Finally, it protected personal injury by it giving aid to the injured.

The Law code of Hammurabi is an inscription of laws on a well preserved stele artifact. The Babylonian King Hammurabi included not only new laws but law codes from the Sumerians and Akkadians. Since Hammurabi included these ideas from previous codes this can prove that these laws were not only written but also enforced. The laws of Hammurabi have a common theme of solving problems with getting even or unjustly consequences so that they don’t go against his laws, the topics such as domestic situations, work relations, and exchange all exemplify this theme within their law.

Hammurabi's code of laws where some of the first laws establish. These laws have gone on to influence other civilians like Greece, Rome, and even laws of today. The laws were based on the theory that says “ an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” This is shown in most of Hammurabi's laws like for example “ if he breaks another man’s bone, they shall break his bone.” These laws were cruel and unusual but in a

Imagine being expected to have a sibling, then a man beats on your mother, and the unborn baby dies. Does the man get any jail time? No, he just has to pay 10 shekels of silver. Imagine ridiculous punishments and laws like that from Hammurabi’s code still being used today. Hammurabi’s Code was definitely unjust; the laws are unfair to the accused, the victim, and to the society as a whole.

Hammurabi’s rules were meant to protect the people like the sick, the widowed, and the poor. For an example Law 168 states that if a father decides to disinherit his son, he must have legitimate reason to do so or he can't give him up. This law prevents single mothers or children with no parents. In Law 148 it says if a man has a wife and she caught a disease he is allowed to have another chance in love after she passes. On Law 48 it states that if a farmer borrows money from a creditor and his crops or field gets damaged by a storm that farmer does not have to pay the creditor back.

An example of this is if a man has knocked out the eye of another man, his eye will be knocked out ( doc E, law 196). The code protected victims of floods that caused them to lose their crops and made it possible for them not to fall into debt (doc D, law 48). Over all the code fought secure rights amongst people and things out of their control. A document recording the statistical data that showed crime rates before and after the implementations of the Code would help to better analyze how much crime rates decreased. It is easy to think that some of Hammurabi’s laws were harsh, like having a curse put on you for not following the laws (doc B), being punished by death for adultery (doc C, law 129), or having your hand cut of for striking your father (doc C, law 195). But these laws were used to keep citizens subservient and show

A few of Hammurabi’s laws were just, but overall a majority of them are unjust. How can someone be put to death or charge someone for the littlest crime? None of these laws and punishments would remain in today’s society. Many think Hammurabi’s laws were justified, but they are unfair because the poor and lower class people were treated not the same and punished. Someone higher up only had to pay a small fine, but the poor had to pay more.

Do you think Hammurabi’s Code was just? Hammurabi was a man who began his rule over Babylonia in 1792 BCE, and ruled over a likely population of 1,000,000 people. Hammurabi ruled over much of Mesopotamia, and sought to make things justified in his cities. Hammurabi constructed his code full of 282 laws on his 38th year of ruling over Babylonia. Hammurabi’s code was later found carved into a stele, and that’s how we know all about the code today. I myself believe Hammurabi’s Code was unjustified, and you will find my reasons in the following Paragraphs, those paragraphs being specifically of Hammurabi’s Family Law, Property Law, and Personal Injury Law. This will be my report on why I know Hammurabi’s Code is unjust.

It’s not everyday that you see a robber being hung, a son’s limbs being cut off, or a set of human beings being drowned in water together. A small city-state that went by the name of Babylon was ruled by a king named Hammurabi around 4,000 years ago. During the 38th year that Hammurabi ruled, he decided to create a set of laws to control his new empire. What influenced his decision on making the 282 laws were the victories at Larsa and Mari. It lead him to think about peace, which soon evolved to be about harsh justice. The laws soon brought up a valuable question in their society. Hammurabi’s Code: Was It Just? If you look into the code you will soon find out that his code was in fact fair for the time. Hammurabi’s Code was just because of

If your car was stolen and wrecked by a guy, you should get a new car and he shall be put to death in the car that he stole. Hammurabi, the King of Babylon, ruled part of Mesopotamia. He was given laws from shamash to put to order on the land he was ruling. The question I am going to answer is, Was hammurabi’s code just or unjust? The question is saying were the laws fair or not. I think the laws are unfair, so I will discuss how they are unfair. I will discuss in the other paragraphs my proven point about how they were unfair on some of the laws.

Hammurabi’s code for property in my opinion is unjust. On document D law 48 it states “ If a man has borrowed money to plant his fields and a storm has flooded his field or carried away the crops……….in

Hammurabi’s Code has shown to be just and kept up with the promises he made to protect the weak and this can be proven in the property laws. For example, Law 23 says that if someone is robbed and the robber hadn’t been caught, the mayor and the city shall give back what has been stolen from them. The victim has been considered, by the law, to be weak because of what has happened to them, and the city, including the mayor, have protected them by giving back what has been taken from them. Another example of justness is shown in Law 21, which states, “ If a man has broken through the wall (to rob) a house, they shall be put to death and pierce him, or hang him in the hole in the wall which he has made.” To some, this may seem harsh today, and

Hammurabi claimed that the god of justice, Shamash gave him these laws to deliver to the people. Throught the Code of Hammurabi you’ll begin to notice that is a bit sexist and graphic. If a woman was caught cheating on her husband then both the other man and the wife would be tied up and thrown in the river, this is a lot different than our justification system today. This code of laws punishments are only the same if two people are equal. What I mean by equal is the two people must be of same gender and social class. As most communities are the higher ups will obviously get off easier than than people in the lower class. This means if someone of a lower class strikes someone of an upper class they will get their hand chopped off or beat with an ox whip in public, but if an upper class strikes a lower class their only punishment is to pay a fine. Although today’s punishments are not that extreme we can still see the similarity. When most people think of the code they think of the famous saying “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” this quote suggests the action of equality but like i just stated equality only exists for the same gender and social

1. Laws are meant to protect us from ourselves. What I understood from the several laws that are in the Law Code of Hammurabi was that this complex society needed these laws to work efficiently. There is a hierarchy in the laws as well as sexism which favored men over women. It also seems that these were humans that committed wrong deeds like any other human in history. It seems that the temptation to do evil is not something new.