Written in Sumerian on clay tablets during the reign of Ur-Nammu of the city of Ur (or his son Shulgi), it is the oldest known surviving law code. Unusually, it prescribed fines in silver for many injuries, rather than the "eye for an eye" of later codes.
Older than Hammurabi's code by about three centuries.
Quick check: Which is the oldest known surviving law code?
Code of Hammurabi
Code of Ur-Nammu
Laws of Manu
Twelve Tables
Answer: B.
c. 1754 BCE
The Code of Hammurabi
An eye for an eye
Issued by King Hammurabi of Babylon and carved on a basalt stele about 2.25 metres tall, the code contains 282 laws on trade, property, family, wages and crime. It is famous for the principle of retaliation (lex talionis): "if a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out". The stele was discovered at Susa in 1901 and is in the Louvre in Paris.
282 laws.
Carved on a basalt stele now in the Louvre.
Quick check: Where is the stele bearing the Code of Hammurabi kept today?
The Louvre, Paris
The National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad
The Pergamon Museum, Berlin
The British Museum, London
Answer: A.
621 and 594 BCE
Draco and Solon
The lawgivers of Athens
Draco gave Athens its first written laws around 621 BCE, so harsh that "draconian" came to mean excessively severe; it was said they were written in blood. Solon, around 594 BCE, repealed most of them (except those on homicide), cancelled debts that enslaved people, and laid foundations for Athenian democracy.
"Draconian" derives from Draco.
Quick check: The word "draconian" comes from:
Draco, the Athenian lawgiver
The Latin word for dragon
A Roman emperor
Dracula
Answer: A.
c. 451–450 BCE
The Twelve Tables
The foundation of Roman law
After the plebeians demanded written laws, a board of ten men (the decemviri) drew up the Twelve Tables, which were displayed in the Roman Forum. They covered procedure, debt, family, inheritance, property and crimes, and were the foundation of Roman law, which Roman schoolboys memorised.
Drawn up by the decemviri.
Displayed in the Roman Forum.
Quick check: The Twelve Tables are the foundation of which legal system?
Roman law
English common law
Greek law
Babylonian law
Answer: A.
529–534 CE
Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis
The body of civil law
The Byzantine emperor Justinian I commissioned a compilation of Roman law under the jurist Tribonian. It has four parts: the Codex (imperial constitutions), the Digest or Pandects (extracts from classical jurists), the Institutes (a textbook for students), and the Novels (Justinian's new laws). Its rediscovery at Bologna in the 11th century laid the foundation of the civil law tradition of continental Europe.
Compiled under Tribonian.
Four parts: Codex, Digest, Institutes, Novels.
Quick check: Under which jurist was Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis compiled?
Ulpian
Tribonian
Gaius
Cicero
Answer: B.
56 more entries under this heading
Magna Carta · The Great Charter
The Petition of Right · Coke against the King
The Habeas Corpus Act · Bring the body
The English Bill of Rights · After the Glorious Revolution
The Peace of Westphalia · The birth of the sovereign state system
The United States Constitution · The oldest written national constitution in use
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen · The French Revolution's charter
The Napoleonic Code · Code civil des Français
The First Geneva Convention · Henry Dunant and the Red Cross
The Hague Peace Conferences · Codifying the laws of war
The League of Nations · The first world organisation
The Charter of the United Nations · Signed at San Francisco
The Nuremberg Trials · Leaders of Nazi Germany in the dock
The Tokyo Trials and Radhabinod Pal · An Indian judge's dissent
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights · Adopted in Paris
The Genocide Convention and Raphael Lemkin · Naming the crime
The Geneva Conventions of 1949 · Four conventions, universally ratified
The European Convention on Human Rights · The first regional human rights treaty
The Rome Statute · A permanent international criminal court
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission · Amnesty for truth
Laws of Gortyn · Europe's oldest surviving law code inscribed in stone
Lex Aquilia · The Roman statute on wrongful damage to property
Theodosian Code · The first official compilation of Roman imperial laws
Salic Law · The law code of the Salian Franks
Assize of Clarendon · Henry II's reform of criminal justice
Charter of the Forest · Magna Carta's companion charter
Statute of Frauds · Certain contracts must be in writing
Acts of Union · England and Scotland formed Great Britain
US Declaration of Independence · "All men are created equal"
US Bill of Rights · The first ten amendments to the US Constitution
Slavery Abolition Act (UK) · Abolished slavery in most of the British Empire
Emancipation Proclamation · Lincoln declared slaves in Confederate states free
Meiji Constitution · Japan's first modern constitution
New Zealand Women's Suffrage · The first self-governing country to give women the vote
German Civil Code (BGB) · A model code of the civil law world
Parliament Act (UK) · Curbed the House of Lords' veto
Swiss Civil Code · Drafted by Eugen Huber
Nineteenth Amendment (US) · Women got the vote across the United States
Statute of Westminster · Gave the dominions legislative independence
Atlantic Charter · Roosevelt and Churchill set out post-war aims
Nuremberg Principles · The International Law Commission codified the Nuremberg principles
Helsinki Final Act · East and West agreed on borders and human rights
Human Rights Act (UK) · Brought the European Convention into UK law
Constitutional Reform Act (UK) · Created the UK Supreme Court
Kampala Amendments · Defined the crime of aggression for the ICC
Brexit · The UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020
The Domesday Book · William the Conqueror's great survey of England
The Provisions of Oxford · Barons forced reforms on Henry III
The Model Parliament · Edward I summoned representatives of shires and towns
The Edict of Nantes · Religious toleration for French Protestants
The Articles of Confederation · The first US constitution
Universal Suffrage in Britain · Women got the vote on equal terms with men
Civil Rights Act (US) · Outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex or national origin
Voting Rights Act (US) · Banned racial discrimination in voting
The Maastricht Treaty · Created the European Union
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU · The EU's bill of rights
PlusAll 61 entries, and every heading in the LibraryYours from ₹1,499, till CLAT 2028See Plus
