Compare And Contrast The Code Of Hammurabi

During the time of ancient Greece, Hammurabi is the best known and most celebrated of all Mesopotamian kings. He ruled the Babylonian Empire from 1792-50 B.C.E. As he conquered other cities and his empire grew, he saw the need to unify the groups he controlled so he compiles a list of laws.

Hammurabi's code of laws was written in a stone monument that stood approximately seven feet tall and was called a stele, where the upper portion showed a picture of Hammurabi standing in front of a seated sun god. Hammurabi's code included more than two hundred and thirty-two laws, most resulting in a punishment of death or loss of limb if a law was broken The Code of Hammurabi was not the first Mesopotamian law code, it is the most complete. The law code

Indeed, a major difference between the modern law and Hammurabi’s law code, modern law is all about equal rights and justice while Hammurabi laws was more in favor of people with higher status. People with higher social status were not punished as harshly as people with lower status. Therefore, people were still discriminated and stratified. This reveals that the purpose of the law code and the modern law are ultimately different. Unlike the modern law, Hammurabi’s law code was not to protect everyone fairly, but merely to regulate the society and to keep it in order so that his reign was

Like as stated in the second law of Hammurabi’s law that “if anyone brings an accusation against a man and he turns out that he not guilty he shall take the possession of the accuser. In today’s law, no such thing exists. Well however, if a citizen damages another citizen’s property he his only required to pay back in cash.

Both laws have an instruction for judges, police officers and witnesses to follow. Although the consequences for errors made by the enforcers of the law are much more severe than the laws of today. Like the law states that if a judge is found to try someone wrongly, and the fault being his, he would be put to death. And witnesses to were put to death for wrong accusing. But it the modern law it is simply called lying under oath and the consequence for that is a short spell in prison.

In conclusion, the two societies have their differences and their similarities. But to some it all up, one would say that the major difference between the two systems is that Hammurabi’s laws are very harsh on its citizens to say the least. The Code of Hammurabi has had lasting impacts throughout time. The high level of organization that was created by the Code was successfully replicated in multiple civilizations which has ultimately lead to where human civilization is