{"id":7083,"date":"2022-12-16T04:03:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T09:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/?p=7083"},"modified":"2025-11-13T14:15:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:15:49","slug":"103-ancient-law-codes-werent-really-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/?p=7083","title":{"rendered":"103. Ancient Law Codes Weren’t Really Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"We're<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This should be a nifty little section. As this page suggests, it’s probably not going to be what you were taught in school. But that’s why you come here, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n

Constitutional Law<\/p>\n

Part 2: \u201cWhat Were They Thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n

Digression: \u201cA History of Government in 6 Revolutions: From the Paleolithic to Philadelphia\u201d<\/p>\n

103. Ancient Law Codes Weren\u2019t Really Laws<\/p>\n

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Panel 1: As Joe looks on, Sis gestures to an inset of panel 2 from page 85, \u201cLaw\u201d Codes. The inset panel depicts a cuneiform tablet, with the narration \u201cBut look at what happened after states<\/strong> arose: Formal, written legal codes!* <\/strong>Pictured is the oldest surviving<\/strong> legal text (though we know others came before): the law code of the city=state of Ur<\/strong>, written down around 2100 B.C.<\/strong> *Note: That\u2019s \u201clegal codes,\u201d not \u201claws.\u201d It\u2019s complicated. More on this later.\u201d<\/p>\n

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SIS:<\/p>\n

But we already<\/strong> mentioned the first laws, remember?<\/p>\n

Ur, Babylon, the Code of Hammurabi and all that?<\/p>\n

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JOE:<\/p>\n

Law codes,<\/strong> yes, but\u2026<\/p>\n

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Panel 2: An ancient Mesopotamian stele next to the text of a section of modern legislation, with a big red \u201cdoes not equal\u201d sign over them.<\/p>\n

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JOE (offscreen):<\/p>\n

You see, ancient Mesopotamian law codes<\/strong> weren\u2019t what we would consider laws.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You shouldn\u2019t think of them as official rules<\/strong> for society, which their governments enforced.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Panel 3: A stylized court clerk\u2019s office in ancient Mesopotamia. A man wearing a skirt of tufted wool is pointing to an eye patch he is wearing, and also pointing to a law-code stele. The clerk, wearing a draped robe and a fez-like hat, sits at a desk with a square of clay and a stylus. On the wall above him is a sign that reads \u201cCOURT SCRIBE please take a number.\u201d Another sign hanging behind the stele says \u201cWe can\u2019t fix stupid, but we can<\/u> give it a court date.\u201d<\/p>\n

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JOE (offscreen):<\/p>\n

The ancient Mesopotamians themselves certainly didn\u2019t think of them that way.<\/p>\n

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EYEPATCH MAN:<\/p>\n

See?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It says right here: \u201cAn eye for an eye!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

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CLERK:<\/p>\n

So?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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-=-<\/p>\n

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Panel 4: A line drawing of two ancient Mesopotamian men in tufted wool skirts. One is leaping away as the other swiped a bronze sword at his ankles.<\/p>\n

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JOE (offscreen): When you read these ancient law codes, you notice that they cover a lot of weird situations that might never even happen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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LEAPING MAN:<\/p>\n

Seriously, how often do people go around cutting off each other\u2019s feet?<\/p>\n

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JOE (offscreen):<\/p>\n

While at the same time, many real-life<\/strong> legal concerns aren\u2019t even mentioned.<\/p>\n

Nothing about contracts,<\/strong> even though a major chunk of legal disputes back then involved contracts.<\/p>\n

Plenty about farms and oxen, but many of these codes don\u2019t mention the sheep, goats, and shepherds that were just as important in their societies.<\/p>\n

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-=-<\/p>\n

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Panel 5: An ancient Mesopotamian judge in official headwear and robe selects a clay tablet from an enormous pile.<\/p>\n

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JOE (offscreen):<\/p>\n

Plus, we have (literally) tons<\/strong> of judicial records from back then, and none<\/strong> of them\u2014zero\u2014so much as mention the law codes of Hammurabi or Ur-Nammu or Lipit-Ishtar or anyone else as a source of law.<\/p>\n

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JUDGE:<\/p>\n

What we rely<\/strong> on is precedent and principles.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We try to ensure justice on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

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-=-<\/p>\n

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Panel 6: Sis looking confused.<\/p>\n

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SIS:<\/p>\n

But, if the law codes weren\u2019t law,<\/strong> then what were they for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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-=-<\/p>\n

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FOOTNOTE:<\/p>\n

This should be a nifty little section. As this page suggests, it\u2019s probably not going to be what you were taught in school. But that\u2019s why you come here, right?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>View Transcript<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This should be a nifty little section. As this page suggests, it’s probably not going to be what you were taught in school. But that’s why you come here, right? \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48,35,63,60,1,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-brief-history-of-government","category-constitutional-law","category-inventing-the-law","category-the-institution-revolution","category-uncategorized","category-what-were-they-thinking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10573,"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083\/revisions\/10573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}