What is the earliest surviving legal code?
The earliest surviving example is the Sumerian code of Ur-Nammu, which dates from around 2100–2050 BC. The first parts of the code, discovered on a pair of tablets in what is now Iraq, state the laws of King Ur-Nammu, who ruled the southern Mesopotamian kingdom of Ur for roughly 18 years. It is an extraordinarily sophisticated text, and is based on an “If… then” structure (eg “If a man knocks out the tooth of another man, he shall pay two shekels of silver.”)
Apart from the crimes of murder, robbery, adultery and rape, which were punishable by death, the code stipulated that most offences should be punished by making the culprits pay the victims financial compensation. Rather than seeking revenge, it was primarily concerned with ‘equity and truth’ and restoring a sense of community.
We know about an even older Sumerian legal code – that of the 24th-century BC ruler Urukagina
– via references in other texts, and this, too, is striking due to its focus on tackling corruption. By comparison, the earliest Babylonian legal code, the Code of Hammurabi (c1750 BC), is based on the principle of ‘an eye for an eye’, and is mostly concerned with vengeance.
Overall, law has formed a continuous part of human history, and has often been intertwined with religion. The law of Moses, for example, dates from the 10th to the 6th centuries BC, while the Buddhist Edicts of Ashoka were created around 269–236 BC.
Roman law – the foundation of many modern legal codes – originated as a set of laws known as the Twelve Tables, which were later codified by the emperor Justinian in AD 529–534. Here in the United Kingdom, the modern legal system is rooted in common law, which dates back to the 12th century.
Hannah Skoda, fellow at St John’s College, University of Oxford, and contributor to our History Behind the Headlines podcast: historyextra.com/podcast