Justice: The Babylonian Definition Of Justice

Around the time of 1792 to 1750 B.C.E., a man by the name of Hammurabi was the ambitious ruler of Babylon. During his reign, he established a compilation of laws that assigned penalties based on retribution, thus creating a list of socially structured regulations centered around the idea that a person who commits a crime must be punished proportionally. Hammurabi’s code is proof of the division amongst the nobles, commoners and slaves in the time period, as well as evidence of the power that the men had over the women.

The essence of the Hammurabi code of law is ‘an eye for an eye’. It is commonly known as the strictest and harshest code of law in history. Retaliatory justice, in which the response to a crime is a proportionate punishment inflicted without the purpose of rehabilitation, is the form of justice that is explained in the Code. It was written under the reign of Hammurabi who became the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon after assuming the throne from his father. He attained almost all of ancient Mesopotamia on his conquest to expand his kingdom. Thus, he created a code of law to unify the provinces he attained, to maintain law and order and to prevent vendetta and blood feuds . He aimed to clearly describe the crime

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.

The Law Code of Hammurabi is a native Babylonian text that served as the basic law code of society. The way of life was of the former Babylonians culture is totally different than what we are used to today. The text gives readers a vision of how ancient societies lived in these times. This law code gave society a diverse arrangement for citizens to follow. The social structure isn’t about wealth, they are judged by different standards (such as trial by ordeal). The husband is the dominant role of the house. The family structure is a patriarchal household and the power of the father is absolute. The Law Code of Hammurabi gives readers a clear thought of how unfair the earlier civilization of Babylonians existed through class structures, gender relations, and family structures.

In regards to the Hammurabi Code of Law, Hammurabi claimed that the gods had picked him to “promote the welfare of the people …to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and evil, so that the strong might not oppress the weak…” His intention was to hold those under his rule accountable for their actions and inspire “appropriate behaviors”. In fact, according to literature, the code functioned on the principle of “lex talionis” which basically translates as the “law of retaliation”. The idea was that the punishment would fit the crime, at least in theory. Similar to today’s laws, individual judges were allowed discretion and did not always follow the code specifically. Never the less, the code was always utilized as a reference for solution. (Bentley and Zeigler, p. 30)

Hammurabi’s Code shows that when Hammurabi ruled the Empire of Babylon justice was typically just doing what had been done to the victim to the wrong doer. Passages 196 and 197 are perfect examples of this. Passage 196 says if a man destroys another man’s eye,

At the time, it was cruel to give harsh punishments to the accused if he/she cause a minor problem and they don’t do anything to help the victim. The property laws are unnecessary to the accused and even if the accused did something on accident, they still maybe end up killing him/her. The personal injury laws don’t even help because the laws punishments are basically killing the accused or chopping off a body part. In that time, the people thought that these laws were fair, But all in all, this is why the laws in Hammurabi’s code were unjust to not only the victim and the accused, but to society as

With the code of Hammurabi, you stood trial. If one person and one person only believed you were guilty, then not even God would save you. If the judge couldn’t determine who was the guilty and who the innocent was, you had to do some extreme things that were totally uncalled for. For example, “if any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take

Everything in the Code of Hammurabi deals with the concept of accusing someone will follow the idea of “an eye for an eye”, therefore; everything is set in a way that one should be serious and careful of what they say. One of the laws in Hammurabi’s code states that, “If a seignior accused another seignior and brought a charge of a murder against him, but has no proof of that, the accuser was also put to death.” By having the awareness of “an eye for an eye” helps with the concept that no one can falsely accuse another person just because they do not like that person or that they dislike what a person is doing so that accusing them will help you take revenge of that person. The accuser must have proof of what they presented that caused the person to be put to death. If they don’t provide any source of evidence, the accuser shall also be put to

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.

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.