A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

3.2.5 Legal precedent is cited in P. Bulaq X^215 and O. Nash 1. The

writer of the letter in O. Nash 1 urges the vizier to impose a harsh

punishment,^216 directing his attention to a similar case from the past.

3.2.6 Not all court cases are actual conflicts. The so-called “Schein-

prozess” (“fictitious suit”) has as its purpose not litigation but rather

the confirmation of a transaction or agreement in court.^217

3.2.7 There is no formal system of appeal, but it was certainly pos-

sible to take a case to a “higher” court.^218 One could set aside ear-

lier decisions, as Mes does, for his side had lost the case before,

apparently because of forged documents. Appeals seem sometimes

to be brought by the winners in order to enforce a decision in their

favor and not by the losers in order to gain justice.

3.2.8 Boochs differentiates between criminal acts against individu-

als and those against the state.^219 While in normal cases, the enforce-

ment capabilities of the judge might be problematic,^220 in government

cases, the state and its officials certainly had that power.^221 In the

Harem Conspiracy Case, the god himself seems to ordain the pun-

ishment: “And there were done to him the great punishments of

death which the gods said: ‘Do them to him.’”^222

3.2.9 In the New Kingdom, especially in association with state

investigations, torture was a means for obtaining information and

confessions.^223 Torture (by the stick, the birch, and the screw) was

probably employed in eliciting the statements in the tomb robbery

papyri.

(^215) Janssen and Pestman, “Bulaq X.. .,” 139–40, 142.
(^216) Allam, Hieratische Ostraka.. ., 215.
(^217) Théodoridès, “Procès.. .,” 84–85; Seidl, “Neue Urkunde.. .,” 52.
(^218) McDowell, Jurisdiction.. ., 183–86; Lorton, “Treatment...,” 23. See also Seidl,
Einführung.. ., 38; Théodoridès, “Concept of Law.. .,” 310.
(^219) Boochs, Strafrechtliche Aspekte.. ., 8. Cf. McDowell, Jurisdiction.. ., 247; Janssen,
“Proceedings.. .,” 294.
(^220) See McDowell, Jurisdiction.. ., 170–79.
(^221) Boochs, “Strafverfahren...”
(^222) Ritner, Practice.. ., 198.
(^223) Lorton, “Legal and Social Institutions.. .,” 356; Van den Boorn, Vizier...,
85–86.
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