List of ancient legal codes
Encyclopedia
This is a list of ancient legal codes: (see Legal history
):
Legal history
Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilizations and is set in the wider context of social history...
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Alphabetical
- Assyrian lawAssyrian lawAssyrian law was very similar to Sumerian and Babylonian law, however, notably more brutal than its predecessors. The first copy of the code to come to light, dated to the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I, was discovered in the course of excavations by the German Oriental Society . Three Assyrian law...
s / Code of the Assura (c. 1075 BC) - Babylonian lawBabylonian lawArchaeological 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...
s (see Code of Hammurabi) - Code of HammurabiCode of HammurabiThe Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code, dating to ca. 1780 BC . It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a human-sized stone stele and various clay...
(ca. 1790 BC) - Code of the NesilimCode of the NesilimThe Code of Nesilim is an ancient Hittite legal code dating from c. 1650-1500 BCE.-Translation:From the Ancient History Sourcebook, The Code of the Nesilim, c. 1650-1500 BCE, Paul Halsall, August 1998, from: Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., The Library of Original Sources , Vol. III: The Roman World, pp....
(c. 1650-1500 BC) - Code of UrukaginaUrukaginaUrukagina , alternately rendered as Uruinimgina or Irikagina, was a ruler of the city-state Lagash in Mesopotamia...
(2,380-2,360 BC) - Code of Ur-NammuCode of Ur-NammuThe Code of Ur-Nammu is the oldest known tablet containing a law code surviving today. It was written in the Sumerian language circa 2100 BC-2050 BC...
, king of UrUrUr was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
(ca. 2050 BC) - Codex of Lipit-IshtarLipit-IshtarLipit-Ishtar , was the fifth ruler of the first dynasty of Isin, and ruled from around 1934 BCE to 1924 BCE. Some documents and royal inscriptions from his time have survived, but he is mostly known because Sumerian language hymns written in his honor, as well as a legal code written in his name ,...
of IsinIsinIsin was an ancient city-state of lower Mesopotamia about 20 miles south of Nippur at the site of modern Ishan al-Bahriyat in Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate.-History:...
(ca. 1870 BC).. - Cuneiform lawCuneiform LawCuneiform law refers to any of the legal codes written in cuneiform script, that were developed and used throughout the ancient Middle East among the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Elamites, Hurrians, Kassites, and Hittites...
(2,350-1,400 BC) - The Gentoo CodeThe Gentoo CodeThe Gentoo Code is a legal code translated from Sanskrit to Persian by Brahmin scholars and then from Persian to English by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, a British grammarian working for the East India Company...
- Gortyn codeGortyn codeThe Gortyn code was a legal code that was the codification of the civil law of the ancient Greek city-state of Gortyn in southern Crete.- History :...
(5th century BC) - The Draconian constitution (7th Century BC)
- Hebraic lawHebraic lawThe term Hebraic law refers to a set of ancient Hebrew Law as found in the Torah of the Hebrew Bible also known as Mosaic Law. The Hebraic law has a great similarity to the law as proclaimed by ancient monarchs of the Middle East, including Hammurabi of the 18th–17th century BC and his famous law...
/ Hebrew BibleHebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
/ Old TestamentOld TestamentThe Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
(see Mosaic Law) (later see HalakhaHalakhaHalakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
) (13th Century BC) - Hittite lawsHittite lawsThe Hittite laws have been preserved on a number of Hittite cuneiform tablets found at Hattusa . Copies have been found written in Old Hittite as well as in Middle and Late Hittite, indicating that they had validity throughout the duration of the Hittite Empire The Hittite laws have been preserved...
(ca. 1650–1100 BC). - Laws of EshnunnaLaws of EshnunnaThe Laws of Eshnunna are inscribed on two cuneiform tablets discovered in Tell Abū Harmal, Baghdad, Iraq. The Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities headed by Taha Baqir unearthed two parallel sets of tablets in 1945 and 1947. The two tablets are separate copies of an older source and date back to ca....
(ca. 1930 BC) . - Mosaic LawTorahTorah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
/ Hebraic lawHebraic lawThe term Hebraic law refers to a set of ancient Hebrew Law as found in the Torah of the Hebrew Bible also known as Mosaic Law. The Hebraic law has a great similarity to the law as proclaimed by ancient monarchs of the Middle East, including Hammurabi of the 18th–17th century BC and his famous law...
- Ten CommandmentsTen CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
. - Traditional Chinese lawTraditional Chinese lawTraditional Chinese law refers to the laws, regulations and rules used in China up to 1911, when the last imperial dynasty fell. It has undergone continuous development since at least the 11th century BC...
- Twelve TablesTwelve TablesThe Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centrepiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum...
of Roman LawRoman lawRoman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...
(451 BC)
By date
- Cuneiform lawCuneiform LawCuneiform law refers to any of the legal codes written in cuneiform script, that were developed and used throughout the ancient Middle East among the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Elamites, Hurrians, Kassites, and Hittites...
(2,350-1,400 BC) - Code of UrukaginaUrukaginaUrukagina , alternately rendered as Uruinimgina or Irikagina, was a ruler of the city-state Lagash in Mesopotamia...
(2,380-2,360 BC) - Code of Ur-NammuCode of Ur-NammuThe Code of Ur-Nammu is the oldest known tablet containing a law code surviving today. It was written in the Sumerian language circa 2100 BC-2050 BC...
, king of UrUrUr was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
(ca. 2050 BC) - Laws of EshnunnaLaws of EshnunnaThe Laws of Eshnunna are inscribed on two cuneiform tablets discovered in Tell Abū Harmal, Baghdad, Iraq. The Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities headed by Taha Baqir unearthed two parallel sets of tablets in 1945 and 1947. The two tablets are separate copies of an older source and date back to ca....
(ca. 1930 BC) . - Codex of Lipit-IshtarLipit-IshtarLipit-Ishtar , was the fifth ruler of the first dynasty of Isin, and ruled from around 1934 BCE to 1924 BCE. Some documents and royal inscriptions from his time have survived, but he is mostly known because Sumerian language hymns written in his honor, as well as a legal code written in his name ,...
of IsinIsinIsin was an ancient city-state of lower Mesopotamia about 20 miles south of Nippur at the site of modern Ishan al-Bahriyat in Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate.-History:...
(ca. 1870 BC). - Code of HammurabiCode of HammurabiThe Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code, dating to ca. 1780 BC . It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code, and partial copies exist on a human-sized stone stele and various clay...
(ca. 1790 BC) - Code of the NesilimCode of the NesilimThe Code of Nesilim is an ancient Hittite legal code dating from c. 1650-1500 BCE.-Translation:From the Ancient History Sourcebook, The Code of the Nesilim, c. 1650-1500 BCE, Paul Halsall, August 1998, from: Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., The Library of Original Sources , Vol. III: The Roman World, pp....
(c. 1650-1500 BC) - Hittite lawsHittite lawsThe Hittite laws have been preserved on a number of Hittite cuneiform tablets found at Hattusa . Copies have been found written in Old Hittite as well as in Middle and Late Hittite, indicating that they had validity throughout the duration of the Hittite Empire The Hittite laws have been preserved...
(ca. 1650–1100 BCE). - Hebraic lawHebraic lawThe term Hebraic law refers to a set of ancient Hebrew Law as found in the Torah of the Hebrew Bible also known as Mosaic Law. The Hebraic law has a great similarity to the law as proclaimed by ancient monarchs of the Middle East, including Hammurabi of the 18th–17th century BC and his famous law...
/ Hebrew BibleHebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
/ Old TestamentOld TestamentThe Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
(see Mosaic Law) (later see HalakhaHalakhaHalakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
) (9th-5th Century BC) - The Draconian constitution (7th Century BC)
- Gortyn codeGortyn codeThe Gortyn code was a legal code that was the codification of the civil law of the ancient Greek city-state of Gortyn in southern Crete.- History :...
(5th century BC) - Twelve TablesTwelve TablesThe Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centrepiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum...
of Roman LawRoman lawRoman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...
(451 BC)