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Rausey Mason

APWH Period 4B
Mr. Harris
8/15/14
Hammurabis Code: Was it Just?
In the 18th century B.C.E., The ruler of Babylon, Hammurabi wrote one of the
earths oldest sets of laws ever to be put into place. It was said that the gods gave him the
right to make these the official laws of his kingdom, which of course everyone agreed to
because they were scared one, of the gods, and two of Hammurabi himself. Though the
question stands: Was Hammurabis code just? I believe, considering the time period it
was created in, that the code was just because of the circumstances of that society as well
as the position Hammurabi was in as ruler of such a large kingdom, although, the laws
would be completely unjust in modern society. Both of those factors contributed to the
fact that Babylonia was to be kept orderly and its citizens obedient, and in the end,
Hammurabis code was extremely effective at doing both.
First and foremost I believe these laws were just for their time and were also
widely accepted in the kingdom because carved into one of the eight foot tall stone steles
that had his codes carved into them showed a picture of Hammurabi standing in front of
the god Shamash who is giving him instructions on how to implement the laws in his
kingdom (Document A). All in all there were 282 laws that Hammurabi put into place
(Document A) and were all perfectly reasonable from his point of view because he was
the king as well as the fact that he supposedly received these codes from a god. Although
we all know that if someone in our supreme court tried to say the received the laws from
a god and that is why they are just, they would get dismissed immediately and possibly
sent to a mental hospital. Now in (Document B) he states that he is setting these laws in

place to protect the weak, which includes orphans and widows and every king after him
should follow the laws for generations to come and if they dont their entire kingdom
including him and his family will be cursed. This is completely just for the time period
because curses were taken extremely serious and the word of a god, which was
Hammurabis Code, should not be denied.
In essence to how he justified his laws, we must now understand the true
magnitude of the codes themselves and why they were valid. There were often extremely
stern consequences for actions against your family such as in Law 129, which states that
a married woman caught in adultery with another man will be cast into the water tied to
that man, which results in death (Document C). Now this law may seem harsh today and
would never be accepted in modern society, but I believe it was justified because it acts
as a deterrent against acts of dishonesty. A final law that I believe is justifiable was that if
a son strikes his father his hands will be cut off (Document C), which seems brutal, but in
a way is protecting the weak as a 60 year old man will be powerless against a young,
strong son. Now when it came to property laws, the codes got much more strict and
proved to be extremely effective because people were too afraid to damage crop, which is
another reason I believe the codes are justifiable. For example, in law 21, if a man breaks
into a house, he will be pierced or hung in the hole he made in the hole in the wall which
he has made it in (Document D). Without our modern justice system, in which you would
go to jail for maybe eight years for breaking and entering and, Hammurabi was in need of
a way to keep crime at a low and these laws justified that.
Finally, laws regarding money and slaves were justifiable simply do to the time
period they were in. Obviously none of them would be justifiable in modern times seeing

as slavery no longer exists with everyone being equal, and surgeons cannot always save
lives, but in Hammurabis time, slaves were property and if you damage someone elses
property you are going to pay the price. Now in law 196 it states if you knock the eye of a
free man you will lose an eye, but in law 199 it is the same situation for a slave, but you
are only required to pay half the slaves value (Document E). This was completely
understandable in the times of Hammurabi because slaves were not treated as humans
and the punishment for hurting a free man was much more severe. Both ends of this
equation would be unacceptable in modern times seeing as everyone is equal and you
would simply go to jail on battery charges if you were to commit such crimes.
All in all I truly believe Hammurabis code was just for the time period it was in
and even though it would be completely illegal and unacceptable in modern life it was
perfectly fit for life in his kingdom. Though I think I would be able to further justify his
laws if I were able to obtain statistics on crime rates and which crimes were committed
the most if any at all. This would show us if they truly were as effective as I believe them
to be and would pretty much make his laws completely justifiable. The kingdom of
Babylonia was one of the greatest of its time period and Hammurabis codes were
testament to such greatness and that is why I believe that they were completely just.

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