A Tentative Discussion On The Civil Law System Of Ancient Egypt

Egypt of the Pharaohs occupied the most time and nearly all culture fruits of ancient Egypt. Just these things such as literature and art of long standing, complicated hieroglyphs, excellent science and attract attention of many scholars. A great many of achievements have been acquired in those fields.However, seldom were there any people studying the law of ancient Egypt, especially, its civil law. If we neglected the research on this field just because of the fact that no Egyptian code has ever been unearthed, that would be a great pity. The defining of ancient Egyptian law is closely related to the division of Egyptian history. Thus, this dissertation illustrates the coming into being of ancient Egyptian law on the basis of reviewing the history of ancient Egypt. Based on this more detailed study on the civil law system is carried out, so that more profound understanding of civil law system on aspects such as the title to land , contracts, marriage and heritage will be available. During the concrete illustration, the law system of ancient Egypt was perfecting with the constant development of Egyptian society. So, the conclusion of the dissertation is that despite the fact that the civil law system of ancient Egypt developed abreast with its society, it still had some profound influence upon the society. What is more, such influence had spread into Greek and Rome.Part 1 Summary of the forming and evolving of the ancient Egyptian legal system, through the study of the emergence and historical division(1) The forming of ancient Egyptian law.In this part, the forming and developing process ancient Egyptian law as the emerging of ancient Egyptian countries will be discussed by the following2 parts:1. Definition of ancient Egyptian lawThe defining of ancient Egyptian law bears close relation with the historical phases of Egyptian history. Professor LiuWenpeng's division reconnects the split Egyptian history, which granted the development of history an intact appearance. Only in this way, a complete and systematic account of the forming, developing and evolving process of ancient Egyptian law is able to be given. Thus it is safe to say that the ancient Egyptian law is a general term of the legal regulations applicable to Egyptian countries dominated by slave system through the whole course of historical development, i.e. including laws of the 31 dynasties in the Egyptian histories, also the periods dominated by Greek and Rome.2. Forming and developing of ancient Egyptian law:With the emerging of unified countries, the legal system of ancient Egypt also developed from common law to statue law, showing a tendency of constant perfecting. There was a legendary saying that many pharaohs had contributed to the development of the ancient Egyptian laws, among which there is the first law-maker of ancient Egypt, Menes who is the first king of the first dynasty, kings of the 18th-20th Dynasty, AmenhotepIII, RamesesII, and Bocchoris, the pharaoh who abolished the debt slavery system.(2) Evolution of ancient Egyptian lawThanks to the invasion of aliens, fresh air was injected into the ancient Egypt .Influences of these alien races penetrated into every aspect of social as well as political life. Law system is no exception. For example, during the Ptolemy Dynasty, the city law system of Greek and aboriginal resident law system of Egypt coexisted. They developed abreast and influenced each other. Also, during the occupation of Rome, the Ptolemy Dynasty's circuit court system was abolished. Instead, the practice of the high officials'annual circuit judging was established. Besides these, many other changes were also taking place.Part 2 Specific content of the ancient Egyptian civil law(1) Property Law. Property law is mainly concerned with the buying, selling and letting of land.1. The sale, purchase and letting of landAncient Egypt is a typical agricultural society, in which land is deemed as a very precious property. It is manifested in the recorded historical document that there existed the private-owned land system in ancient Egypt. Thus, the discussion of sale, purchase, and letting of land can be carried out under this precondition. As for the selling, purchasing, and letting of land, specific regulations and requirement were given out in the ancient Egyptian law. Among these regulations and requirements there are the patternings and content of the land sale document, the requirement that land sale contract must be registered, and the regulation of the responsibilities and rights of both sides of letting, etc...2. The management and exemption of property taxIn ancient Egypt, Vizier was responsible for the work of collecting tax. Of course he had the help from other departments. Wilbur paper of the 20th Dynasty provided us with many detailed documents about land and tax. Even though most of the residents and groups are responsible for paying tax, exemptions did exist. Typical examples are some statues exempting the taxes of some mortuary temples in the 5th and 6th Dynasty and the statue issued by Haremhab, pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, which exempted the taxes of lawyers in the 18th Dynasty.(2) Contract LawWith development of trade both in home and abroad, the system of contract also perfected from the two aspects of principles of setting and media of exchange. Tax management regulations were also involved.1. Making of contractAs the development of trade, ancient Egyptians mastered the basic principles of contracting through the simple bartering economy. What is more, selling and purchasing of land, renting, cooperating---- various forms of contracts came into being.2. The criteria of exchanging mediaIn the ancient period, even though copper had already been used as the media of exchange, the dominating form was still real object, especially grains. Later, till the middle and new dynasties periods, metals such as, silver and gold were also used as exchanging media, which are both the result and the incentive of the development of trade.3. National taxes and tariffsTax collecting is an important responsibility of ancient Egyptian countries. With the development of economics and the evolution of exchanging media, the variety and media of collecting tax were also evolving. Besides the already existed property tax and land tax, tariff came into being. The existence of tariff serves as an effective encouragement and protection of foreign trade. On the other hand it is a strong pounce and resistance of illegal trade.(3) Marriage Law and Succession LawMarriage is the beginning of a family. Because family is the basic component of a society, and it bears close connection with the stability and development of a society, the importance of marriage law goes without saying. When referring to marriage and family, the issues concerning heritage will be naturally involved. There is an unalienable relationship between them.1. Conditions of marrying and devoicingIn ancient Egypt, common people had the right to get married. Though theoretically they practiced a monogamous marriage system, the phenomenon of marrying a second wife still existed. Those passed-down marriage contracts still stipulated clearly the issues concerning property. Devoicing also existed in ancient Egypt. The most important issue about devoicing was also the division of properties. 2. Succession LawIn ancient Egypt, there coexisted two kinds of succession: succession with a will, and succession without a will. Specific regulations were put forward concerning different situations. Apart from these, the succession of some titles was also given much attention, with the succession of crown being the most important one.Part 3 Analysis of the influences of civil law system upon ancient Egyptian society and other areas(1) Influences upon ancient Egyptian society and life. According to the civil law system of ancient Egypt, everyone could depose their own property at their own will. What is more, the thriving of contract law greatly promoted the evolution of Egyptian writing system.(2) Influences upon other areasAncient Egyptian laws exerted profound influence upon the legal system and thought about law-making of Greek and Rome. Some parts of the civil law system became part of the commercial common law of Greek thereafter. They were also acquired by the Eastern Roman Empire in the Byzantine time, and became one of the models of Roman commerce.ConclusionThe ancient Egyptian laws had been playing a due role since the beginning of early stages of ancient Egyptian countries. As the processing of dynasties, the Egyptian law also developed and evolving. The ancient Egyptian civil law system includes property law, contract law, marriage law, inheriting law, etc.. It influenced every aspects of Egyptians'life. Meanwhile, it also exerted a great influence upon the guiding ideology of making laws, and law-making of other areas.