Summary: The Impact Of Ancient Laws
The Impact of Ancient Laws by Courtlynn Johnson
Since inventing language and contructing culture, man has tried its hand at creating laws in efforts to mold--in their eyes--a perfect society. Humans, unlike other animals, have the capacity to create ideas and adapt to an ever-changing world including the laws that are used to 'adjust ' immoral behavior. These laws differ not only from different civilizations, but different time periods too. Laws and rules, like humans, have evolved through the centuries from the Hammurabi Code to Ancient Egyptian laws and not only have they helped shape history but our modern laws as well,such as minimum wage, incest and equal justice. "Ancient codes, or sets of laws, have been written down since around 2000 BC." states Dylan Moore of the TopTenz press, "Many of these laws were harsh and would be seen as barbaric...but many of them were actually just as compassionate and fair, and sometimes more so, than the laws we have now." (Moore). Such famous laws such as the Hammurabi code introduced laws that revolutionized how laws were created. The Hammurabi Code addressed incest, slavery and minimum wage. On the subject of minimum wage the Hammurabi code states that, "If any one hires a field laborer, he shall pay him …show more content…
In the law it asserts that, "A king exercises not falsehood nor force nor oppressive might. He is righteous towards all his people, both weak and strong." (Finney-Brehan). The king was ordered to rule over his people fairly and it was one of the first laws the limited the power of a monarch. This impacted law making greatly by limiting the power of leaders and helped create more laws that are used t keep leaders in line. A great example of this in modern times is how the president 's power is limited through the constitution and legislative and judicial
Since inventing language and contructing culture, man has tried its hand at creating laws in efforts to mold--in their eyes--a perfect society. Humans, unlike other animals, have the capacity to create ideas and adapt to an ever-changing world including the laws that are used to 'adjust ' immoral behavior. These laws differ not only from different civilizations, but different time periods too. Laws and rules, like humans, have evolved through the centuries from the Hammurabi Code to Ancient Egyptian laws and not only have they helped shape history but our modern laws as well,such as minimum wage, incest and equal justice. "Ancient codes, or sets of laws, have been written down since around 2000 BC." states Dylan Moore of the TopTenz press, "Many of these laws were harsh and would be seen as barbaric...but many of them were actually just as compassionate and fair, and sometimes more so, than the laws we have now." (Moore). Such famous laws such as the Hammurabi code introduced laws that revolutionized how laws were created. The Hammurabi Code addressed incest, slavery and minimum wage. On the subject of minimum wage the Hammurabi code states that, "If any one hires a field laborer, he shall pay him …show more content…
In the law it asserts that, "A king exercises not falsehood nor force nor oppressive might. He is righteous towards all his people, both weak and strong." (Finney-Brehan). The king was ordered to rule over his people fairly and it was one of the first laws the limited the power of a monarch. This impacted law making greatly by limiting the power of leaders and helped create more laws that are used t keep leaders in line. A great example of this in modern times is how the president 's power is limited through the constitution and legislative and judicial