An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
So goes the ancient adage about retaliatory
justice – also known by the Latin term
lex talionis – that governed the cradle of
civilisation, formed the foundation of
constitutions, and occasionally peppers
angry conversations today.
It is in Mesopotamia that standardised law
was conceived, and most likely out of necessity
for governing disputes between people who,
for the first time in history, were organised
into closely quartered cities and ruled by a
The world’s first written laws came from its first civilisation, Mesopotamia,
and along with it the earliest judicial proceedings in the presence of a king
Letter of the Law
EQUALITY AND JUSTICE
DATA SOURCES: ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS HISTORY, FOX LAW FIRM, FACTS AND
DETAILS, TULANE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL, YALE LAW SCHOOL, TIMEMAPS
geography
ancient mesopotamia
ȑ The world’s first city-
states develop in southern
Mesopotamia
ȑ Sumerian king Ur-
Nammu writes the first
legal codeȑ King Hammurabi of
Babylon issues the Code
of Hammurabiȑ The Hittites of Hattusa
write similar sets of laws
to the Babyloniansȑ The Mesopotamian
empire falls into decline50th century Bce 22nD century Bce 18th century Bce 14th century Bce 10th century BceaBove The restored
ruins of a palace in
ancient Babylonsovereign king. The legislation of the time is
widely regarded as decidedly advanced: Many
kings, such as ancient Sumerian king Lipit-
Ishtar, had legal codes to determine the rights
of ordinary citizens, including concepts like
minimum wage and presumption of innocence,
dating all the way back to 2100 BCE.
Ruling monarchs often cited a benevolent
motive necessitating the creation of a legal
system: to protect the weak from oppression.
This attitude toward their power in lawmaking
is perhaps best summarised by the declarationPHOTO © SHUTTERSTOCK