The written code formulated by King Hammurabi of Babylon when he was in power was aimed at maintaining private property ownership, comprehensively adjusting the relationship between free people and consolidating the existing order. The exact time when the code was enacted is not clear. It was drafted in BC 179 1 year or BC 1790, and was completed after the unification of Babylonia. The Code includes three parts: preface, text and conclusion. The preface is full of words that deify and beautify Hammurabi. The text includes 282 laws, involving procedural law, civil law, criminal law, marriage law and other modern contents, aiming at mediating various economic relations, such as property possession, inheritance, transfer, lease, loan and employment, as well as social and marital relations between freemen. The code shows that there are three basic classes in ancient Babylonian society: slave owners, slaves and small producers, and there is a hierarchical relationship that is inconsistent with the class relationship. Freemen are divided into two classes: the powerful Avilu and the semi-powerful Mushgennu. The former means "people" and enjoys some privileges; The latter may mean "worship" and its legal status is low. The code restricts debt slavery and usury, and limits the excessive plunder of small producers, so as not to shake the sources of soldiers and tax sources. The code strictly protects slavery and embodies the nature of the code. Finally, in addition to continuing to praise Hammurabi, he also emphasized the invariance of the principles of the code. The establishment of the code marks the progress of the legal system in ancient Asia. Mature code of hammurabi consists of three parts: preface, Article (282) and conclusion, including litigation procedure, theft disposal, soldiers' land allocation, tenancy, employment, commercial usury, marriage, inheritance, injury, debt and slavery. The basic characteristics of the code are: firstly, it obviously protects the interests of slave owners and the private ownership of slavery; Secondly, the code still retains some remnants of customary law, such as the homomorphic revenge principle of "a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye" (Articles 196 and 200) and the custom of judging by God (Articles 2 and 132). Thirdly, code of hammurabi in the modern sense does not distinguish between public law, private law (civil law) and criminal law. All laws are integrated, and laws and regulations are determined from civil law and criminal law.
On the one hand, code of hammurabi integrates the Amorite customary law into the culture; on the other hand, it absorbs the legislative achievements of Sumer and Akkad, as well as the city-state legislation in the time of Ishinlarsha. But it is mainly the product of the social and economic system at that time, reflecting the reality of all aspects of society at that time. There are 282 stone tablets in code of hammurabi. The code is based on Sumerian legislative principles and incorporates the new inventions of semu. However, they have different views on which principles belong to Sumerians and which principles belong to Semu people, so we'd better simply boil them down to the most famous documents recording the "Mesopotamian legal system".
Some laws and regulations in code of hammurabi: 1. If a free man swears to expose a free man's crime and charges him with murder but can't prove it, the informant should be put to death; 3. Freemen provide criminal evidence in litigation cases, which cannot be proved. If the case is related to life, it should be put to death; 5. If a judge changes his sentence after hearing a case, he shall expose his crime and revoke his seat as a judge. He will never be employed in code of hammurabi again. Slaves have no rights at all, and they will be severely punished if they are slightly negligent. In addition, the code also mentions two legal classes: one is "people", which obviously refers to nobles; Besides, all other people who are neither "human beings" nor slaves are treated badly by law, but code of hammurabi has certain legal rights based on two most famous principles, namely "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" and "let the buyer be careful". Meng Yi seems that these two principles are very primitive. When it comes to compensation for certain injuries ("People ruin others' eyes, they ruin their own eyes"; "If a person breaks another person's bone, he will break his bone"), the code never considers whether the initial injury is purely accidental, but relentlessly insists on making people suffer pain and humiliation. The principle of "let the buyer be careful" is not so cruel, but it doesn't look like the law. Why does the state declare in a code that sellers will not be punished for cheating? Because Mesopotamia made laws mainly to stop fighting, they thought it was by no means unreasonable-a person who always wanted to take violent measures might not be violent if he remembered that no matter how much he hurt others, he would be punished by law. As for the principle of "let the buyer beware", it is also to stop fighting, because the buyer knows that he has no right, and if he makes trouble, he will be punished immediately. It was by relying on this code that Babylonian society in Hammurabi's time became the most tightly ruled country among the ancient eastern slave countries. Until now, this legal provision engraved on the stone pillar is still the oldest and most complete code in the world.