The Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi is a collection of the King of Babylon’s laws which were inscribed on stone columns towards the end of his reign. The 282 case laws include economic provisions (prices, tariffs, trade, and commercial regulations), family law (marriage and divorce), as well as provisions dealing with criminal law (assault, theft) and civil law (slavery, debt). Hammurabi’s Code is the most complete record of ancient law in existence.

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Citation

The Code of Hammurabi King of Babylon about 2250 B.C. Autographed Text Transliteration Translation Glossary Index of Subjects Lists of Proper Names Signs Numerals Corrections and Erasures with Map Fronticepiece and Photograph of Text, by Robert Francis Harper (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1904).

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Urukagina (Author)

About 600 years before the reign of Hammurabi, Urukgina led an uprising against the tyrannical ruler of Lagash. The account of this revolt already contains the concepts of individual liberty (and the oldest known word for “liberty”) and private property.
Gilgamesh (Book)

Among the very oldest existing stories in human history, The Epic of Gilgamesh poses many of the same questions with which people have grappled for the subsequent six thousand years: Why ae we here? What is a good life? Can we be free?
Moses (Author)

Considered the promulgator of the Mosaic Law, ultimately based on the divinely revealed Ten Commandments. Emerging roughly a thousand years after the Code of Hammurabi, the two law codes bear many similarities, as well as significant differences.

Critical Responses

Liberty Classic

The Laws of a Bygone Civilization

Barry Cooper

A Law & Liberty review of Liberty Fund’s edition of Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters

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Book

Ancient Law

Henry Sumner Maine

Originally published in 1861, Maine did not discuss the Code of Hammurabi (discovered in 1901), but focused on Roman Law.

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Connected Readings

Ur-Nammu Code

Promulgated in Ur about three centuries before the Code of Hammurabi, it covers some of the same areas and is often seen as its predecessor.

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