1.2.4.1 The provisions of the law codes are direct statements of
legal norms. Unlike demonstrably legislative sources such as decrees
and instructions, they cover most areas of legal relations between
individuals. They are also widely distributed in time and place and,
at the same time, closely related in form and content.1.2.4.2 The form is casuistic. The law is expressed as a series of
individual cases, the circumstances of which are put into a hypo-
thetical conditional sentence, followed by the appropriate legal response
in the particular case. For example:If an ox gores an ox and causes its death, the owners of both oxen
shall divide the value of the live ox and the carcass of the dead ox.While there is some variation within the framework of this form, for
example, the protasis can begin “a man who.. .,” or the whole rule
can be cast as a direct order (“a loan of fungibles shall not be given
to...a slave”), the approach is always the same.1.2.4.3 As regards the content, a large number of the same cases
recur in different codes. They are not necessarily presented in the
same language, nor do they always have the same solution. Further-
more, they tend to be presented in sets of variants, only some of
which overlap. For example, the case above of the goring ox comes
from LE, which also has a variant where the victim is a person.
Both variants are found in CC, but in LH only the human victim.
All three sources break the identity of the human victim down into
the same set of further variants; whether the victim is a man, a son,
or a slave. They also share the use of the same legal distinction:
between an owner who was warned by the local authorities of his
ox’s propensity to gore and one who was not.1.2.4.4 The common features of these codes mark them as origi-
nating in the sphere of Mesopotamian science. The method of
Mesopotamian scientific inquiry was to compile lists. We have seen
above the use of this technique for lexical purposes and its applica-
tion to legal words and phrases. A more sophisticated type of list
attempted to classify the product of theoretical disciplines—medical
symptoms and their diagnosis, omens and their significance, and
conflicts and their legal resolution—by presenting them in casuistic
form, a hallmark of Mesopotamian scientific style. Lists of this type
consisted of hypothetical cases grouped in sets of variants. 17
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