The Laws of Hammurabi

Abstract

A CENTURY after the promulgation of the Code Napoleon the monolithic law book of Hammurabi is set up in the Louvre.If the analogy is not unduly pressed, there is a significant similarity between the sources of these two codes.In both cases a conqueror sought to consolidate his empire by organizing a mass of undigested local and provincial customs, decisions, and decrees into a uniform and national system.Both Hammurabi and Napoleon set at work influences in jurisprudence which extended far beyond their times and the borders of their empires.Since M. de Morgan, in December, I90I, and January, I902, discovered at Susa the three fragments of a beautifully polished and engraved black marble monolith containing an ancient Babylonian code, the Assyriologists have been diligently at work.The first official series of photographic reproductions, together with a transliteration and translation of the text,' has been made the basis of several volumes and monographs.The philological elaboration of the code is well under way;2 its relation to the laws of Moses has been discussed with considerable fulness ;3 several different editions in German, Italian, and Eng-lish4 have either been issued or are announced for early publica-I SCHEIL, Textes dRamites-sdmitiques, 2me sdrie (Paris, 1902).2MtULLER, Die Gesetze Hammurabis (Vienna, I903); pp.245-67.3KOHLER AND PEISER, Hammurabi's Gesetz (Leipzig, I904); COOK, The Laws of Moses and the Code.ofHammurabi (London, I903).4WINCKLER, Die Gesetze Hammurabis (Leipzig, I903); OETTLI, Das Gesetz Hammurabis und die Thora lsraels (Leipzig, 1903); JOHNS, The Oldest Code oj Laws in the World (Edinburgh, I903).

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