Hammurabi Rules

 By:  Elaine Landau
Hammurabi rules and laws were all made for the same reason. So people could have punishments and respect the consequences when they did something wrong or something that was against the rules. Although most of the time rules and laws were fair at time they weren't. Most laws depended on the social class you belonged to. Rules and laws for slaves were a lot different then the rules for priest. If an incident happened, like if a priest hit a slave it would not be considered a crime because slaves are in a lower social class and are refereed to as property. Slaves were used like machines. They were suppose to do everything that they were told. But if a slave was to protest or attack or in danger the owner of a higher social class if would we punished with physical punishments like cutting off parts of their body which is barbaric and unfair. The owners or people of higher class can do whatever they would like because they have a higher social status and are considered more valuable. Such rules were made because the slaves were in lower class which is unfair and not human like. Other rules were based on whether a person was innocent or proven guilty.  People in the past basically saw the fault of someone depending on their class, so basically, either they were slaves or prosperous government people. People made laws that made no sense or were not fair. For example: 'Someone who steals another person's slave or hides a runaway slave intending to keep that individual as his own slave may be put to death.' In this law, the person could be sentenced to death even if he stole anything not to mention a slave, but if he was helping one that ran away, and then decided to use it for his own slave. This is very unfair and nonhuman way of treating each other. A normal person would have a reason for doing what he did and should have a chance to explain why he did what he did and based on that the punishment should be decided. There are many laws that I personally do not agree with but there were some that I agree and respect. 'A man can leave property to his wife rather than his son. However a woman is not allowed to sell property willed to her by her husband. At her death all she owns goes to her sons.' It is a law that I think is fairly fair I would add some changes to it to give the woman more rights but from all the other laws this one would be considered too kind. The Hammurabi made about 280 laws in total which is why I will not have time to discuss them all but only some. There are laws that are fair and unfair but all those laws were made to raise peoples attention and remind them of lines they could not cross. Some laws we still have today but many are forgotten and we do not pay much attention to them because they are cruel and unfair. All laws had a reason but some were unfair and some were fair. Most laws appeared unfair to slaves because they were on the bottom of the social class and were punished the most. There are many laws today and many are unfair but we always need to face the consequences of our actions and know where the line is not to be crossed. 

Landau, Elaine. "Hammurabi's Babylonia." The Babylonians: 39-44. Print.