GHS

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History of Law

• GHS
• 2003-2004

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History of Law

• Earliest written law 2350 BC
• No original document found.

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Earliest Written Law - Examples

• Thieves and adulteresses were to be stoned to
  death with stones inscribed with the name of
  their crime.
• The code confirmed that the "king was appointed
  by the gods".

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First Legal Decision 1850 BC

• Murder of a temple employee by three men.
• The victim's wife knew of the murder but remained
  silent.
• Nine witnesses testified against the men and
  woman and asked for the death penalty for all
  four.

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First Legal Decision

• The wife had two witnesses - she had been abused
  by her husband, she was not part of the murder,
  and she was even worse off after her husband's
  death.
• Men were executed in front of the victim's house
  but
• the woman was spared.

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Hammurabis Code

• Babylonian king
• Came to power in 1750 BC.
• Under his rule, a code of laws was developed and
  carved on a huge rock column.
• The expression "an eye for an eye" has come to
  symbolize the principle behind Hammurabi's code.

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Hammurabis Code

• 282 clauses regulating a vast array of
  obligations, professions and rights including
  commerce, slavery, marriage, theft and debts.
• The punishments are, by modern standards,
  barbaric.

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Hammurabis Code - Examples

• The punishment for theft was the cutting off of a
  finger or a hand.
• A man's lower lip was cut off if he kissed a
  married woman.
• Defamation was punished by cutting out the tongue.

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• 2. If any one bring an accusation against a man,
  and the accused go to the river and leap into the
  river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall
  take possession of his house. But if the river
  prove that the accused is not guilty, and he
  escape unhurt, then he who had brought the
  accusation shall be put to death, while he who
  leaped into the river shall take possession of
  the house that had belonged to his accuser.
• 22. If any one is committing a robbery and is
  caught, then he shall be put to death.

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The Ten Commandments

• 1300 BC
• Moses received a list of ten laws directly from
  God.
• Transcribed as part of the Book of Moses, which
  later became part of the Bible.

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The Ten Commandments

• Continue in the form of modern laws such as "thou
  shalt not kill" and "thou shalt not steal.
• The Bible chapter that contains the Ten
  Commandments (Exodus) follows the recitation of
  the Commandments with a complete set of legal
  rules, which are based on the "eye for an eye,
  tooth for a tooth" legal philosophy of
  Hammurabi's Code.

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• I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee
  out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
  bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before
  me.
• Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
  in vain.
• Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
  or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
  above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
  is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not
  bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.
• Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
• Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days
  may be long.
• Thou shalt not kill.
• Thou shalt not commit adultery.
• Thou shalt not steal.
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
  neighbour.
• Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou
  shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his
  manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor
  his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.

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Justinian's Code

• Emperor of Byzantine
• Codified Roman Law
• Books called Corpus Juris Civilis.
• From Greek legal principles.

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Justinian's Code

• A quote "The things which are common to all (and
  not capable of being owned) are the air, running
  water, the sea and the seashores.
• 529 AD

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Magna Carta

• England, June 15, 1215
• King John of England
• Gives (concedes) a number of legal rights to the
  people.

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Si autem heres alicujus talium fuerit infra
etatem et fuerit in custodia, cum ad etatem
pervenerit, habeat hereditatem suam sine relevio
et sine fine. Articles, section 2 1225,
section 3.
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• 61 clauses
• most important is 39
• "No freeman shall be captured or imprisoned ...
  except by lawful judgment of his peers or by the
  law of the land".
• First time a king allowed that even he could be
  compelled to observe a law.

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No sheriff, royal official, or other person
shall take horses or carts for transport from
any free man, without his consent

• We will appoint as justices, constables,
  sheriffs, or other officials, only men that know
  the law of the realm and are minded to keep it
  well.
• No one shall be arrested or imprisoned on the
  appeal of a woman for the death of any person
  except her husband.

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The Mayflower Compact - 1620

• "In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are
  underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread
  Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God,
  of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of
  the Faith, e.
•           Having undertaken for the Glory of God,
  and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the
  Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant
  the first colony in the northern parts of
  Virginia do by these presents, solemnly and
  mutually in the Presence of God and one of
  another, covenant and combine ourselves together
  into a civil Body Politick, for our better
  Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the
  Ends aforesaid And by Virtue hereof to enact,
  constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws,
  Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from
  time to time, as shall be thought most meet and
  convenient for the General good of the Colony
  unto which we promise all due submission and
  obedience.
•           In Witness whereof we have hereunto
  subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of
  November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord,
  King James of England, France and Ireland, the
  eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth.
  Anno Domini, 1620."

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• Written on the Mayflower.
• To resolve any conflicts once settlers went
  ashore.
• Men freely submitting to a government.

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The Mayflower Compact

• "This day, before we came to harbour, observing
  some not well affected to unity and concord, but
  gave some appearance of faction, it was thought
  good there should be an association and
  agreement, that we should combine together in one
  body, and to submit to such government and
  governors as we should by common consent agree to
  make and choose, and set our hands to this that
  follows, word for word. . ."

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The English Bill of Rights - 1689

• Before (precursor) to the American Bill of
  Rights
• Strict limits on the English Royal Family's
  legal rights.
• Prohibited arbitrary suspension of Parliament's
  laws.
• Limited the right of taxation to Parliament.

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The English Bill of Rights - Examples

• That it is the right of the subjects to petition
  the King, and all commitments and prosecutions
  for such petitioning are illegal.
• That election of members of parliament ought to
  be free.

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• That the freedom of speech, and debates or
  proceedings in parliament, ought not to be
  impeached or questioned in any court or place out
  of parliament.
• That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor
  excessive fines imposed nor cruel and unusual
  punishments inflicted.

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The American Declaration of Independence

• "We the people," starts the Declaration of
  Independence proclaimed on July 4, 1776. The
  Declaration was a statement to the effect that
  "all political connection between (the United
  Colonies) and the State of Great Britain is and
  ought to be dissolved" and that a new state, the
  United States, was started. It remains a
  remarkable legal document in that it is the first
  time a government has rebuked the medieval theory
  that certain people possessed by right the power
  to rule others. "All men are created equal,"rings
  the declaration, and have "unalienable rights
  that among these are life, liberty and the
  pursuit of happiness. That to secure these
  rights, governments are instituted among men,
  deriving their powers from the consent of the
  governed."

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Signing the Declaration of Independence, 1776
Copy of painting by John Trumbull, 1817-18
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The Constitution of the United States of America

• 7 articles
• signed in Philadelphia
• 1787
• Describes the duties of the executive,
  legislative and judicial branches.
• The Constitution also declared that it is the
  supreme law of the law - paramount to any other
  law.

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