his region emphasised the importance of his acting fairly and
impartially, not favouring the strong over the weak, being sure to
protect against exploitation the interests of vulnerable members of
society, like widows and slaves:
Into whatever city you return, summon forth all the people
of the city. Whoever has a suit, decide it for him and satisfy
him. If the slave of a man, or the maidservant of a man, or a
bereaved woman has a suit, decide it for them and satisfy
them. Do not make the better case the worse or the worse
case the better. Do what is just.^2In‘doing what is just’, regional governors were also obliged to take
full account of local customs, ensuring that the judgments they
pronounced and the penalties they imposed were consistent with
the region’s customary laws. If cases arose where judgments
contained in the Laws were at variance with local law, precedence
was to be given to the latter. This was why it was very important for
a governor to consult closely with his district councils. The advice
they provided on local laws and traditions helped ensure that his
judgments did not run contrary to these. Indeed, there might well
have been cases where local legal tradition prescribed harsher
penalties for offences than those laid down in the Laws. In such
cases, the governor was obliged to follow the local tradition:
As it has been from olden days–in a town in which they
have been accustomed to imposing the death penalty, they
shall continue to do so. But in a town where they have been
accustomed to imposing exile, they shall continue that
(custom).^3Later versions of the Laws indicate an increasing shift towards local
communities becoming as self-regulatory as possible, with
correspondingly less involvement in their affairs by the kingdom’s
central authorities. The basic principle was that in communities
which have their own customary laws, the members of these
communities should be tried in accordance with them. In attempting
JUSTICE AND THE COMMONER 129