Fun facts about Law of Human Society

Image Credit: forefrontdermatology.com

Hello friends. In this article I am sharing some interesting one liner facts about history of Law in Human society. These are short notes which are helpful in describing the origin of law.

1) Ancient Egyptian law: Civil code written in 12 books long back in 22nd Century BC. It was based on the concept of Maat characterized by tradition rhetorical speech, social equality and impartiality.

2) Ur-nammu: Ur-nammu was an ancient Sumerian ruler. He formulated the first law code consisting of casuistic statements (if…then…”) during his era i.e. during 2100-2050 BC. This is known as Ur-nammu code and is written on tablets in Sumerian language.

3) Hammurabi: Around 1960 BC king Hammurabi further developed Babylonian law, by codifying and inscribing it in stone. Hammurabi placed several copies of his law code throughout the kingdom of Babylon as Stelae, for the entire public to see this became known as the codex Hammurabi.

4) India: The Arthashastra, dating from the 400 BC and the Manusmriti from 100 BCE were influential treatises in India, but this Hindu tradition, along with Islamic law was supplanted by the common law when India became part of British Empire. Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Hongkong also adopted the common law. 

5) Japan: Japan was the first country to begin modernizing its legal system along western lines by importing bits of the French but mostly the German Civil Code. 

6) China: Similarly traditional Chinese law gave way to westernization towards the final years of the dynasty in the form of six private law codes based mainly on the Japanese modal of German law.

7) Islamic Law: One of the major legal systems developed during the Middle Ages was Islamic law and jurisprudence. During the classical period of Islamic law and jurisprudence “Hawala” and institution of law was an early informal transfer system which is mentioned in text of Islamic Jurisprudence as early as the 8^th century. Hawala itself later influenced the development of the “Aval” in French civil law and Avallo in Italian law. 

8) Roman Law: Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek teachings.

Thanks for reading till the end. Please follow and share this blog for more law notes.