1. PSIR120 Introduction to Law
Week 1 Part 2
The Genesis of Law

2. Lecture Plan Historical development – Early Origins
The Code of Hammurabi
Ancient Greece – Solon
The Roman Empire – Roman Law
Law at European universities
Modern codifications

3. Historical Development
Law does not stand still.
While the modern system of law can be traced back some two-three hundred years, certain of the basic concepts of law can be traced back thousands of years ago.
The first traces of law come from the city-states situated in the area known to historians as Mesopotamia.

4. Mesopotamia - “ubi societas ibi jus”

5. The Code of Hammurabi
Hammurabi was the king of Babylon from 1792 BC to 1750 BC.
Hammurabi had succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule by winning a series of wars against neighboring kingdoms.
Hammurabi is best known for the promulgation of a new code of Babylonian law – the Code of Hammurabi – one of the first written laws in the world.

6. The Code of Hammurabi
The Code of Hammurabi is inscribed on a stele in the shape of a finger about 2.25-metre tall in the Akkadian language using cuneiform script.
It was discovered in 1901 and is now on display in the Museum of Louvre in Paris. It contains 282 laws written on 12 tablets.

7. The Code of Hammurabi

8. The Code of Hammurabi

9. The Code of Hammurabi – cuneiform script

10. The Code of Hammurabi

11. The Cyrus Cylinder dates from the 6th century BC and was discovered in the ruins of Babylon in It is exhibited in the British Museum in London.

12. Ancient Greece

13. Ancient Greece - Solon
Solon, born c. 630 BC – died c. 560 BC, was an Athenian statesman, known as one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece who introduced a new law code for Athens. He was also a poet.
His code replaced the code of Draco (621 BC) and remained the foundation of Athenian statute law until the end of the 5th century.

14. Solon ( BC)

15. Athens

16. The Roman Empire

17. Roman Law
Roman law was the law of the Roman Empire from the time of the founding of the city of Rome in 753 BC until the fall of the Western Empire in the 5th century AD.
It remained in use in the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire until 1453.
The legal institutions evolved by the Romans had influence on the laws of other peoples in times long after the disappearance of the Roman Empire.

18. The Law of the Twelve Tables
The Law of the Twelve Tables (Duodecim Tabularum) was composed by a commission, first of ten and then of twelve men, in BC.
It was engraved on twelve tablets (whence the title), which were attached to the Rostra before the Curia in the Forum of Rome.

19. The Law of the Twelve Tables

20. Justinian’s Codification
The Byzantine Roman Emperor Justinian, ordered the revision and codification of Roman law consisting of three books - Corpus Juris Civilis.
The work was carried out between 529 and 534 AD.

21. Justinian’s Codification

22. Justinian’s Codification

23. The Study of Roman Law
Emperor Justinian’s codification spread throughout most of Europe and was taught at European universities. Its rules were reinterpreted and adapted to suit the requirements of the time.

24. Universities in Europe
University of Bologna – 1088;
University of Oxford – 1167;
University of Cambridge – 1209;
University of Salamanca – 1218;
University of Padua – 1222;
Charles University of Prague – 1348;
Jagiellonian University – 1364;
University of Warsaw – 1816;
Istanbul University – modern since 1933;
University of Ibadan – 1948.

25. University of Bologna

26. Modern Codifications
By the 18th century Justinian’s codification was replaced by several modern codes such as: The Napoleonic Code of 1804
or the German civil code (BGB) of 1900.
BGB served as a model for civil codes of China, Japan, Taiwan, Greece and many other states.