The history of our current law dates from Palaeolithic times. The first written laws were codified by the rulers of Mesopotamian kingdoms, from the beginning of the second millennium B.C.E. This history, and those of the medico-legal specialties in particular, trace their origins to Hammurabi’s Code. Hammurabi (ruled 1792–1750 B.C.E.) was the sixth King of the First Dynasty of ancient Babylon, today an archaeological site in modern-day Iraq. Hammurabi’s Laws (c.1760 B.C.E.), inscribed on at least one diorite stele, were set up in public places in Babylon, towards the end of the King’s 43-year reign. Comprising almost 300 specific laws, with judicial punishment for transgressions, Hammurabi’s Code reflects his role both as a guardian of the vulnerable and as a protector of the weak and powerless. Just as medical papyri from ancient Egypt (e.g. the Edwin Smith papyrus c.1600 B.C.E.) are regarded as the origins of western medicine, so Hammurabi is the pioneer of “medical” laws as these have evolved to their sophisticated state today.
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Roth MT. Law collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. 2nd ed. Atlanta, USA: Society of Bible Literature, 1997, pp.76–81. [The references to “the well-being of the people” in the Code of Hammurabi are at column i (lines 27–49), and column v (lines 14–24) of the stele in the Louvre.].
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Roth MT. Law collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. 2nd ed. Atlanta, USA: Society of Bible Literature, 1997, p.123. The Akkadian word “awīlu” refers to a free person, whether man, woman or child, with the connotation of one of high birth.
18.
Roth MT. Law collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. 2nd ed. Atlanta, USA: Society of Bible Literature, 1997, p.72. The Akkadian word “muskenu” describes a commoner “inferior in rights and privilege to an ‘awīlu’”.
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Roth MT. Law collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. 2nd ed. Atlanta, USA: Society of Bible Literature, 1997. Law 218. [Inscribed on the Louvre stele at column xli, lines 74–83.].
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Demosthenes [in a speech, for Ariston, prosecutes Conon]. Demosthenes Against Conon, 36. Quoted by Amundsen DW and Ferngren GB, The physician as an expert witness in Athenian law. Bull Hist Med 1977; 51: p.206, notes 21, 22.
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