Page "Babylonian law" Paragraph 0

Archaeological material for the study of Babylonian law is singularly extensive.

So-called " contracts " exist in the thousands, including a great variety of deeds, conveyances, bonds, receipts, accounts, and most important of all, actual legal decisions given by the judges in the law courts.

Historical inscriptions, royal charters and rescripts, dispatches, private letters and the general literature afford welcome supplementary information.

Even grammatical and lexicographical texts contain many extracts or short sentences bearing on law and custom.

The so-called " Sumerian Family Laws " are preserved in this way.

Other cultures involved with ancient Mesopotamia shared the same common laws and precedents, extending to the form of contacts that Kenneth Kitchen has studied and compared to the form of contracts in the Bible with particular note to the sequence of blessings and curses that bind the deal.

The The Maxims of Ptahhotep, Sharia Law, and Mosaic law also include certifications for professionals like doctors, lawyers and skilled craftsmen which prescribe penalties for malpractice very similar to the code of Hammurabi.

The discovery of the now-celebrated Code of Hammurabi ( hereinafter simply termed " the Code ") has made possible a more systematic study than could have resulted from just the classification and interpretation of other material.

Some fragments of other codes exist and have been published, but there still remain many points whereof we have no evidence.