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Hammurabi's Code Was It Just Dbq Essay

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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 …show more content…

One of the main reasons that Hammurabi decided to write these laws were to protect the widows and the orphans (Document B). This proves that Hammurabi did have a soft spot in his heart for the people who had lost the ones they have loved. It shows that he cares for the ones who have no control over what tragic event happened in their life. In Law 168, it states that if a man is determined to disinherit his son and the son has not done anything wrong, the judge can declare that the man shall not disinherit his son. (Document C). This proves that Hammurabi’s Code was just, because it protects the son from being disowned by his own father. The judge declares the final decision by the present evidence if he has committed a misdemeanor. This law on his code, saves the son from punishment he wouldn’t deserve. One of the family laws that is included in Hammurabi’s Code is Law 195. The law claims to cut off the hands of a son who has struck his father (Document C). This laws show fairness in his code, because it protects the society as a whole. If the son’s hands are cut off, then he knows to not show violence to any man. If the punishment was not as harsh, the son wouldn’t care if he struck his father another time. Hammurabi’s Code proves justice in the family laws that have been written, by displaying the fairness that relationships …show more content…

One of the laws that show this is Law 196. This law directly states, “If a man has knocked out the eye of a free man, his eye shall be knocked out (Document E).” Justice can be proven in this piece of evidence because the law tells us that if one man causes another man to hurt, then the same thing will be done to them. It’s the golden rule of treating others the way you want to be treated. In Law 209, if a man causes a woman to lose her child, he shall pay 10 shekels of silver (Document E). This shows that Hammurabi’s Code was just because he has to pay a certain amount for killing what could have been a brand new life. The fruit of her womb is now dead, and there isn’t anything you can do about it anymore. The law requires the man to pay 10 shekels of silver, which is punishment for ending a life. Law 218 tells us that if a surgeon caused the death of a patient, his hands must be cut off. I believe that this is fair because if they are trained on how to save someone, they shouldn’t even get close to letting a person die. They should lose their hands because it conveys the lack of good work they

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