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Hammurabi's code is a set of laws enacted by the Babylonian King Hammurabi in 1771 BC. These laws consisted of a potential case and potential verdict and depended on the social status of the accused and accuser. The laws were based heavily on punishment as the death penalty was listed 30+ times. For example if a child was to hit their parent the punishment was to have their hands cut off. Hammurabi's code was the earliest recorded "law" and modern laws have evolved around these laws. -
In 527 A.D. Justinian started to make rules and plan ways to make the Byzantine Empire as great as the Roman Empire. Justinian Code was divided into four parts: The Law Code, The Digest, The Institutes, and The Novellae. Justinian Code also emphasized equality under the law. For example if someone was born a slave and their mother was a slave they too are a slave. Justinian code is considered to be the basis of civil law and first introduced equality for everyone under the law. -
In 1066 king William established a team of judges that would roam England settling cases based on precedent. Common law is based around relying on previous laws and decisions to help make decisions in the present, this is called Case Law. For example if a person committed a crime like arson and in the past there was a case similar to it, the judge would use past decisions to make a decision for the case. Today we still use precedent and have a basic idea for punishments for certain crimes. -
In 1190 the five Iroquois nations united together under the Haudenosaunee confederacy by the Great Peacemaker These nation were located below the Great Lakes The Great Law of Peace is the oral constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy. The law was written on wampum belts which symbolized unity. An example of a law is that if a lord commits murder they will have their title removed and are expelled from the nations. Because of this Canada and the US used many laws from it in our own legal system -
In 1215 king John signed a document in Runnymede that made everyone equal under the law including royalty this know as the Magna Carta. This introduced the rule of law in England and kept powers from being abused. This also introduced habeus corpus. An example of a case is if the king committed murder he would get the same punishment as a slave. This has impacted our current legal system because it makes it so that everyone is under the law and must follow the laws that are in place to govern us -
In 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte signed one of the most important documents for the French in France. This codified several branches of law, including commercial and criminal law, and divided civil law into categories of property and family. Consequences of this code are that it reduced the rights of women and their husbands had power over them and a say in what they do. This has impacted our current legal system because it is still being used today in Quebec although it has been amended many times.