law code

1. Urukagina
code
Ur Nammu
code
Law developed with development of
civilization and it can be traced back
in the known history when city state
of Lagash established a law as an
instrument to control his citizen.
 Urukagina was a ruler of the city-state Lagash in Mesopotamia.
 (Mesopotamia) is a Greek word that means the land between the rivers
 He assumed the title of king, claiming to have been divinely appointed.
 Upon the downfall of his corrupt predecessor, Lugalanda.
 Kind made law.
 He exempted widows and orphans from taxes.
 compelled the city to pay funeral expenses (including the ritual food and
drink libations for the journey of the dead into the lower world)
 He decreed that the rich must use silver when purchasing from the poor,
and if the poor does not wish to sell, the powerful man (the rich man or
the priest) cannot force him to do so.
 Gave it ownership of vast amounts of land confiscated from the former
priesthood, and placed it under the supervision of his wife, Shasha.
 He seems to have abolished the former custom of polyandry in his
country,
 Second is a statute stating that "if a woman says [text illegible...] to a
man, her mouth is crushed with burnt bricks?"
 No comparable laws from Urukagina addressing penalties for adultery by
men have survived. (He was a social reformer


 in a Sumerian language
 kind made law
 The laws are arranged in casuistic form of IF (crime) THEN (punishment)
 it institutes fines of monetary compensation for bodily damage,
 Murder, robbery, adultery and rape were capital offenses.
 If a man knocks out the eye of another man, he shall weigh out ½ a
mina of silver. (15)
 If a man has cut off another man’s foot, he is to pay ten shekels.
 If a man accused the wife of a man of adultery, and the river ordeal
proved her innocent, then the man who had accused her must pay one-
third of a mina of silver.
 If a man knocks out a tooth of another man, he shall pay two shekels of
silver. (Total 32 provisions)
Subject: Introduction to Law
Standard: LL.B semester 1
Topic: The concept and historical background of law code
MUNIR HUSSAIN
Lecturer
UNIVERSITY LAW COLLEGE
QUETTA
www.facebook.com/pages/Corridor-to-Commercial-Law
Origin
Metaphysical origin
Physical origin
Adam and Hawa
Ablees
etc
Started with the living of Adam on
earth and conflict of Habil and Kabil
The concept of law, breach of law,
punishment and reward are divine
2350 BC
2050 BC

2. code of
Hammurabi
 Kind made laws.
 lex talionis means law of equivalent retaliation
 The code consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments,
 Adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis) as graded
depending on social status, of slave versus free man.
 Nearly one-half of the code deals with matters of contract, establishing,
 for example, the wages to be paid to an ox driver or a surgeon.
 Other provisions regarding transactions,
 Establishing the liability of a builder for a house that collapses,
 For example, or property that is damaged while left in the care of
another.
 Provision regarding family relationships
 such as inheritance, divorce, paternity, and sexual behaviour.
 one provision appears to impose obligations on an official;
 this provision establishes that a judge who reaches an incorrect decision
is to be fined and removed from the bench permanently
 A few provisions address issues related to military service.
 Concept of holy river
For crimes that could not be proven or disproven with hard evidence
(such as claims of sorcery), the Code allowed for a “trial by ordeal”—an
unusual practice where the accused was placed in a potentially deadly
situation as a way of determining innocence. The Code notes that if an
accused man jumps into the river and drowns; his accuser “shall take
possession of his house.” However, if the gods spared the man and
allowed him to escape unhurt, the accuser would be executed, and the
man who jumped in the river would receive his house.
Google .
1750 BC