The restrictions established by the members of the Babylonian culture play an essential role in understanding the people’s core values in need of protection. I believe that Hammurabi’s laws number 5 and 21 could still be relevant in contemporary society, as they reflect the crucial notions of justice and property insurance. Given that the current legislation aims to ensure the enforcement of similar principles, it is possible to propose that the concepts of fair judgment and safety of realty are still enforced in the modern age. In this paper, Hammurabi’s laws number five and twenty-one will be evaluated as the guidelines that secured the ideas of justice and property protection, which were of particular significance to the Babylonians.
The fairness of an imposed decision and its impact on the suggested offender is a crucial part of any legal system. According to Hammurabi’s law number five, if a judge was found guilty of committing an error, they were forced to pay a significant amount of money and were “publicly removed from the judge’s bench” (The Code of Hammurabi 5). The regulation described clearly adheres to the value of objectivity and validity, as any person should be defended from an unjust or erroneous resolution (Smarthistory). These issues are still relevant for the contemporary legal system, as judges often face specific punishment for enforcing a preemptive or mistaken judgment.
Another legislation imperative for this discussion is law number twenty-one, which adheres to the ideas of property protection. The decree states that a thief is to face a substantial punishment for damaging another person’s housing in an attempt to steal their belongings (The Code of Hammurabi 7). Guarding the safety of the citizens and their possessions was essential for the Babylonian culture, ensuring that the people are protected from such dishonorable acts (Sayre 53). The modern jurisdictions also highlight the idea of an individual’s property invulnerability, establishing penalties for the violations.
References
Sayre, Henry. “HUM 2220, Humanities: Greek and Roman”. Valencia College, 2019.
“The Code of Hammurabi.” Constitution Society.
“The Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi.”YouTube, 2017. Web.