The Hammurabi’s Code

Hammurabi’s Code: A Look at its Unfairness and Inequality

Hammurabi code was based on the “eye for an eye” principle of justice where fairness and equality were the main recognized values. Although the code was determined to establish justice, one side seems to have always been oppressed. For example, in the 2nd law, if one is accused of sorcery, he or she drowns (Zohair, Mir, and Stephen 2). If not, the accuser is put to death. This made it difficult for anyone to either make an accusation or prove it. The rules made it quite difficult to achieve equality. For instance, if a person was a good swimmer, he or she was more likely to get away with many crimes. There are many sections of the code that appear unusual to me. For example, the third law would result in the death of a victim seeking justice if the accused destroyed all the evidence (Zohair, Mir, and Stephen 3). According to this code, it was more important to prove something had been done than to accuse a suspect. This made justice too far to reach.

Unfair Treatment of Women in Hammurabi’s Code

In this code, there are some laws which are fair and others which are quite unfair to women. The 148th law protects sick women from being thrown out of their houses by their husbands and the new wives (King 2). In addition to that, the 145th law protects the first wife who cannot bear children from the ridicule of the fertile second wife. However, there are other laws which are very unfair to women. For example, law 132 required any woman suspected of adultery to jump into the river regardless of her expertise in swimming. The woman could die irrespective of whether she was guilty or not. Therefore, as a citizen of the United States of America, I think that the Hammurabi’s code was generally unfair towards women and unsuitable for maintaining justice and equality.

Works Cited

King, L. W. “the code of Hammurabi: Translated by LW King.”(2005).

Zohair Husain, Mir, and Stephen E. Costanza. “Code of Hammurabi.”The Encyclopedia of Corrections (2017): 1-4.