The Unjustness of the Law Code

Ritik Malhotra

Near Eastern Studies R1B Lecture 4

Response Paper: Hammurabi (Ch 7-8)

The Unjustness of the Law Code

In the continuation of the biography, King Hammurabi of Babylon, by Marc Van De Mieroop, chapters seven and eight, delve deeper into the life of King Hammurabi, detailing the new state and his set of laws for what he is famous for. In the description of the law code Hammurabi generates during his regime, we are presented with a list of example laws that Hammurabi sets forth; however, after further analysis, it is clear that the set of laws is highly case-specific and isn’t rudimentary enough to cover non-specific, simpler misdemeanors.

In the descriptions of the law code, we see cases such as “if a builder builds a house and does not make his work strong, and if [it] collapses and kills the owner, that builder shall be killed” (Mieroop 105) which shows how specific the law code is made. This leaves room for lots of subjectivity when it comes to making decisions in the name of justice whenever similar, yet not exact, cases come up. Since there isn’t a basic rule or law that can govern general cases similar to the one regarding the builder, it seems hard to use Hammurabi’s law code to actually give proper results to trials.

This notion is further corroborated by what Mieroop has to say regarding Hammurabi’s code as he says that “there was an abundance of opportunities to formulate new laws based on [the existing ones]” (109) since Hammurabi was the one presiding over many cases. This argument adds some legitimacy to the law code as it provides a common standard for judging cases since Hammurabi thinks in a similar fashion for each case. While this does open doors for abuse of power and corruption among a single ruler, it is clear that Hammurabi made a valiant attempt at trying to create a just system, especially for his time.