The Code Of Hammurabi And Old Babylonian Social Justice

Since the beginning of civilization, the problem of justice has been contemplated and discussed. Generally, justice means fairness or equality. It is just to treat people in proportion to their relevant differences, "everyone should get a portion which he deserved". It also requires to concern the relationship among individuals and between the individual and the society: an individual is obliged to respect the interests of both other individuals and society, on the other hand, society ought to give everyone anything he deserves, and the interests of any individual should be violated neither by other members of the society nor by the state. As the main instrument for keeping social justice, the law plays quite an important role in both ancient and modern societies.This thesis will discuss the social justice of the Old Babylonian times by analyzing the laws of the Code of Hammurabi-a famous code of ancient Mesopotamia. There are four chapters:Chapter 1: Mesopotamian Kingship and Justice. The Mesopotamian king was appointed by the gods, and it was one of his most important duties to establish justice for mortals according to the will of the gods. Many kings, including Hammurabi himself, affirmed that they were "kings of justice". The unjust king would be punished by the gods. The most important way by which the king kept the social justice was to make the code.Chapter 2: Distributive Justice. Distributive justice means that the society distributes rights and obligations among its members according to their positions and functions to make sure that "everyone gets a portion which he deserves". The members of the Old Babylonian society were classified in three strata: awilum (free man), muskenum (half-free man) and slave; each stratum had different rights and obligations. Although slavery is considered as unjust in modern society, it did not violate the principles of Babylonian justice. Soldiers had a particular function in society, so Hammurabi took various measures to protect their interests from unjusttransgression.Chapter 3: Rectifying Justice. Rectifying justice means to correct and remedy a variety of unjust phenomena in society, in order to resume a just social order. By punishing crimes harshy, protecting the innocent and defending the debtor against the oppressions of the creditor, the code makes the weak not be oppressed by the strong, in order to keep the justice. Moreover, to keep the justice of judicature, the code punished false witnesses and bribed judges. Hammurabi even interfered in the process of judicature personally to correct wrong judgements.Chapter 4: Gender and Justice. There were many laws in the code aimed at protecting the women from arbitrary treatment, poverty and neglect. There was also a particular social group: priestesses. In the code, the priestesses were divided into three groups: entus, naditus and sugitus. The most important part are naditus. A naditu was cloistered in the temple from her mid-teens to her death, and infertile in her whole life. However, she enjoyed many privileges, which the common women did not. To keep the social justice, the state had to protect her interests.Conclusion: The Code of Hammurabi incarnates the idea of justice of the Old Babylonians, which not quite the same as our modern idea of justice. Although it is to some extent primitive in comparison to modem justice, modern justice is the result of the development of ancient justice, and the spirit of justice exists in the whole history of mankind.