The unique ruler of Babylon Hammurabi became the author of the code of laws. In fact, every crime and punishment according to the laws of Hammurabi painted a table made of clay in detail. After all, it was on such clay tablets that articles of prescriptions were published. In the XVIII century BC. e. a historical monument appeared - the laws of King Hammurabi. Crimes and punishments described in the code are included in article 282. When the reign of Hammurabi was 35 years old, he ordered the laws to be carved on a huge pillar of black basalt. This pillar was found during the excavation of Suz in 1901. The prologue to the codebook explains that these are God's laws proclaimed on behalf of the king, and they must be followed.
Purpose of Laws
As the king himself said, laws were needed so that the stronger did not oppress the weak, so that widows and orphans and other oppressed would receive justice.
By issuing a set of instructions, the king consolidated his power. The system of crimes and punishments under the laws of Hammurabi made it possible to annex considerable territories of neighbors and create unified norms of laws uniform for the country. In addition, the then-elite of society set the task of legal methods to legitimize privileges and property in front of the rest of the people. Hammurabi’s laws came in handy here. Crimes and punishments, articles with which have survived to this day, allow us to judge the degree of development of the Sumerian civilization. On the other hand, laws were also required to smooth out tensions in society. The criminal law that described any crime and punishment according to the laws of Hammurabi, in short, was based on the principle: an act that violates the established traditional order is punished.
Own
Hammurabi laws have attempted to regulate property rights. As it recognized land, buildings, slaves and movable property.
Land could be owned by the state (king), community, temples, private individuals.
Private ownership of the property was secured. Slaves were considered an important part of the property, the protection of which was given increased attention.
Law of obligations
Various obligations under the code stemmed from the contracts. The system of contracts was regulated by the realities of life and law. Although the written conclusion of the agreements was not mandatory, they could not be concluded without witnesses. Since writing in the country was widespread, literate people entered into contracts in the form of writing on an clay tablet. Some agreements required the oaths of the parties and the presence of priests.
Violation of the contract was punished in a variety of ways, including slavery.
For the sale required a written contract. When transferring things to the new owner, they symbolically touched the item with a wand. It was possible to sell movable property, buildings and slaves.
Employment contracts were also practiced. With their help, things, services and people were hired. Land rental was widespread. Moreover, the rent was charged by the crop, sometimes reaching half of it.
Although slave labor was widely used in Babylon, personal employment contracts were not uncommon. Numerous documents prove the hiring of builders, shepherds and joiners. It was considered shameful for doctors not to provide medical assistance to the poor, even if he had nothing to pay.
The law protected the careful performance of duties by an employee. For example, if a building built by a bricklayer collapsed, he had to make restoration at his own expense.
With the development of monetary operations, banks began to emerge with which loan agreements were concluded. The interest on the loan was huge, amounting to 100% of the borrowed amount. An insolvent debtor could lose his freedom as a punishment. However, since peasants and artisans suffered most from this, Hammurabi eased the laws by eliminating lifelong debt slavery and setting a 3-year term for debt servicing. In addition, a number of provisions have been introduced into the laws that protect the debtor from arbitrariness of creditors.
Family law
Family law was based on the patriarchal traditions of Babylon. Girls got married at an early age, barely 12 years old. In Babylon, a girl was considered equal with a man in a marriage, in contrast to neighboring states. In addition to the wedding ceremony, the conclusion of a marriage contract was required.
The law spells out in detail what happens to spouses' property in various situations in family relationships. It was allowed to marry free citizens with slaves. Children born in such a marriage were considered free.
Monogamous marriages prevailed. However, in some circumstances, the husband may have a second wife. Although in the legal sense a woman was equal to a man, she was depressed in the family.
The husband had the opportunity to beat her and even sell her into slavery. The laws of Hammurabi regulated penalties for treason.
Also in Babylon, prostitution was widespread. She could be household and temple. Some categories of women without husbands engaged in sacred prostitution at temples. The income from these occupations was appropriated by the temple.
Although the priestesses of love did not feel public condemnation, the laws protected the moral of the society.
Inheritance Law
At the initial stage of the formation of legislation, as in other countries with legalized slavery, sons were usually considered heirs, one of which had priority. Daughters inherited property only when there were no sons. Later, children of different sexes received equal inheritance rights. If the children died before their parents or refused to inherit, this right passed to the grandchildren. Children adopted by the family had the same inheritance rights with their children.
Based on the fact that the property should not leave the limits of the clan, the law gave the right to inherit married sons. The law was silent about married daughters.
After the death of her husband, the widow returned the dowry and gifts made by her husband. She could live in the house of the deceased spouse. If the mother of the family died, the dowry that was given for her was received not by the husband, but by the children in equal shares. Everything that the slave had, with his death, went to the master.
The will was not provided. True, some of his features were already visible. For example, it was possible to give priority to individual heirs, and there was also the possibility of depriving the sons of the sons who had guilty of anything in whole or in part.
The system of crimes and punishments under the laws of Hammurabi is quite harmonious.
Crime
There is no designation of a criminal act in the legislation of Hammurabi, however, according to the very content of the articles, it can be understood that a situation was considered a crime when the requirements of the laws were violated. The legal culture of the inhabitants of Babylon was not enough to consolidate the prevailing principles of criminal law: varieties of guilt, determination of complicity, the concept of attempted murder, mitigating and aggravating circumstances. However, certain features of the future harmonious legislation have already been traced. So, a distinction is made between intentional and unintentional crimes, the concept of aiding,
concealing a crime and incitement to it is defined. For example, the beatings that a victim inflicted during a fight that caused her death do not always require punishment of the perpetrator by the death penalty as is customary or as blood feud requires. In Babylon, the perpetrator was punished for such a crime with a fine, the amount of which was determined by the social
status of the victim. If the wound in the brawl was inflicted unintentionally, the perpetrator was released from liability. At the same time, it was extremely tough, by burning alive, looting in a fire was punished. The murder by a woman of her husband on order was punishable by the fact that the woman sat on a stake.
The types of crimes and punishments under the laws of Hammurabi are given below.
Crimes against the individual
This category of crimes includes homicide (intentional or unintentional). Examples of such crimes are the murder of one of the spouses of the other, the operation of a doctor that led to death, the intentional infliction of bodily harm, verbal or insulting action, slander.
Property crimes
Particular attention was paid to the protection of the temple property and the property of the king, punishment for trying to abduct which without any conditions was the death penalty. Moreover, the value of the property that is stolen does not matter. People who bought stolen goods were also cruelly punished.
A slightly different article was formulated about the theft of livestock, which seems to be somewhat contrary to the penalties for the crimes mentioned above. The theft of an ox, a sheep, a pig or a donkey is punishable by the fact that the stolen is returned in thirty times. The punishment seems too soft, if you do not take into account the fact that such a high fine is equivalent to the death penalty, since it is almost impossible to find how to pay the fine. As a result, the offender was forced to pay with his head.
Some property crimes, according to the laws of Hammurabi, allowed the use of lynching. These norms existed under the influence of customary law relating to lynching as the fairest measure of punishment. The kidnapper, who was able to capture at the crime scene in the room where he entered through the breach made by him, was sentenced by the owners to be executed instantly and to be buried right at the place of capture.
Among property crimes were robberies, removal of the slave mark from the slave, damage to other people's property, destruction of crops by livestock.
Crimes Against Morality
The most common crimes in this category of crimes were those that violate family traditions: incest, wife adultery, depraved wife behavior, rape. This also included crimes related to the theft or substitution of children, the escape of a wife from her spouse, the theft of a woman who is married.
Crimes Against Justice
Such misconduct includes false testimony during the trial. This crime was punished on the basis of the principle of equal retaliation. The law also regulated the punishment of judges who changed judicial decisions in a case due to pressure or for money. It was planned to remove the judge from office. In addition, the judge had to pay 12 times the cost of the claim.
Professional crimes
This category includes criminal acts by doctors, builders, tenants, shepherds.
Among crimes there are state crimes. The person who granted asylum to the criminal, as well as who did not report, having learned about the conspiracy, is subject to punishment. Death was punishable by the refusal of the soldiers to speak on the march. They did not even have the right to propose another person in return for their candidacy.
Penalties
The punishments were extremely cruel. More than thirty types of crimes were punishable by death. Manslaughter or inadvertent killing entailed the death of the accused. In addition to the death penalty, corporal punishment, self-harm, compensation for property in multiple sizes, punishment based on equal retribution (the principle of the talion), and penalties were used.
Hammurabi laws gave a number of privileges depending on the social status or gender of the attacker. Similar crimes were punishable by different punishments for a slave and a free man. Although most often the laws of Hammurabi punished individually for crimes, in some situations there remained mutual responsibility - a relic of tribal relations. So, if the kidnapper could not be detained, the community was forced to recover the property stolen in the territory where she lived.
Types of punishments:
- the death penalty in the form of burning, impaling, drowning;
- self-mutilation in the form of cutting off the tongue, fingers, hands and tongue;
- expulsion from the settlement;
- fines for property damage, verbal and insulting actions.
In the code of laws of Hammurabi, the principle of talion (retribution to equal) is often used. For example, if the culprit is guilty of the son of a man, then the son of the culprit is punished. From the standpoint of current law, such an interpretation seems pointless, however, in ancient times, children were considered as the property of the father, and such compensation for damage seemed legitimate.
Trial
At the hearing, the crime and punishment under the laws of Hammurabi were considered. The trial and trial took place in adversarial mode. The case was initiated by the injured party. In Babylon, a procedural law had already been formed, requiring that judges not only hear witnesses, but also investigate the circumstances of cases.
Guilt was considered proven if the culprit confessed to the deed, there were documents and testimonies of witnesses proving guilt, there was evidence and traces of illegal actions.
Hammurabi Law Articles Table
Excerpts from the codex, where each crime and punishment under the laws of Hammurabi with articles can be read below.
| Section 14. | Theft of children for which death is the punishment. |
| Section 21. | Violation of the inviolability of housing. The punishment is death. |
| Section 25. | Theft during a fire. As a punishment, a person must be thrown into the fire. |
Completely every crime and punishment under the laws of Hammurabi with examples of articles could not be restored. Not all provisions of the laws have survived to this day.