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The Code of Hammurabi allowed for punishment up to, but not beyond the original offense. So if someone gouged out your eye, you could only, at most, gouge out one of their eyes. It was that severe because there were blood feuds that were even more severe. Before the code, someone who is blinded in one eye might cut out two of the perpetrator's, or worse, seek to wipe out their entire family. So believe it or not, the Code of Hammurabi was an early attempt at due process.

However, the severity of the laws were actually graded by the social class of the victim, meaning that if a doctor were to accidentally kill a rich patient, his hands would be cut off, but if he killed a slave, he'd only be expected to financially compensate the slave owner.

Nearly half of the code involves contractual matters, such as pay rates for various professions.

Here are some of the specific laws:

Slander - If someone says something they cannot prove against the sister of a god or anyone's wife, the judges were to mark his forehead, presumably by cutting or at least shaving out some of his hair.

Stealing - If a robber were caught in the act, they were to be put to death.

Slavery - If someone were to enslave a noble or former slave outside the city gates, they were to be executed.

Divorce - If a woman claims her husband deserted her and there is no fault on her part, then she is allowed to take back her dowry and return to her father's household.

Injury - If someone causes another to lose an eye, they are to lose an eye, and if someone breaks someone's bones, they are to have their own bones broken. In addition, the guilty person had to pay a fine, one gold mina for a freeman or up to half the price of a slave if a slave is the victim.

Trade - This law requires receipts, bills, and compensation for goods delivered.

Liability - If a man refuses to repair a dam and his neighbors' fields are flooded and their crops are ruined as a result, the man is to be sold into slavery and the money given to the people whose crops he ruined.

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9y ago

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