Code Of Hammurabi Essay

Hunter Allen

Code of Hammurabi

10/15/13

The Code of Hammurabi was a set of laws created to maintain order in society in ancient
Babylon. However it can be questioned if the Code of Hammurabi was truly fair for all citizens.
A lot of the codes laws were deemed unreasonable and cruel to the citizens. But the code did create a decent order to the way of life during that time. There are various reason as to why the code can be seen as fair and unfair. The Code of Hammurabi was the first deciphered set of laws made dating back to around
1700 b.c. The code of Hammurabi was created by King Hammurabi to establish order in the babylonian society. There were 287 laws in the code that covered most of the aspects of life in the Babylonian empire. Hammurabi states that he created the laws to keep peace and righteousness in the land and protect the weak from the strong. For the most part what
Hammurabi says is true however there various laws in the code that were deemed to be very unfair and/or cruel to lower class people. If there was anything the code of Hammurabi did right, it was to make sure all the citizens knew the rules of their society. The laws had also prevented a lot of people from committing crimes for the most part because some of the penalties were terrifying. The laws also kept order in a way that people won’t be affected by other peoples mistakes. For example law

233 states: If a contractor builds a house for someone and the walls start to fall, then the builder must use his own money and labor to make the walls secure.This law acts like a early form of insurance so the builder can’t scam the customer. There are several laws similar to this to improve equality among citizens but unfortunately there were not many of them. Although the code of Hammurabi punished people for committing crimes and persuaded people to not do them, a lot of laws used violent punishments for non violent crimes. It should also be noted that penalties depend on the person's social class, so someone of a lower class will be put to death for crime and someone of a higher class may get fined or no punishment at all.
Laws also didn’t exclude children, law 195 states: If a son strikes his father, the son’s hands shall be cut off. A child should not be punished so harshly for an act as minor as this no matter what.
Some laws were so vague they caused paradoxes, law 3 states: If someone falsely accuses someone else of certain crimes, then he shall be put to death. This contradicts itself because an accused person weren't allowed an explanation whether they committed the crime or not. It can be easily

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