List of ancient legal codes
The legal code was a common feature of the legal systems of the ancient Middle East. Many of them are examples of cuneiform law. The oldest evidence of a code of law was found at Ebla, in modern Syria. The Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu, then the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, are amongst the earliest originating in the Fertile Crescent. In the Roman empire, a number of codifications were developed, such as the Twelve Tables of Roman law and the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian, also known as the Justinian Code. In India, the Edicts of Ashoka were followed by the Law of Manu. In ancient China, the first comprehensive criminal code was the Tang Code, created in 624 AD in the Tang Dynasty.
The following is a list of ancient legal codes in chronological order:
- Cuneiform law
- * The code of law found at Ebla
- * Code of Urukagina
- * Code of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur. Copies with slight variations found in Nippur, Sippar and Ur
- * Laws of Eshnunna
- * Code of Lipit-Ishtar
- * Babylonian law
- ** Code of Hammurabi
- * Hittite laws, also known as the 'Code of the Nesilim'
- * Assyrian law, also known as the Middle Assyrian Laws or the Code of the Assyrians/Assura
- Law of Moses / Torah
- * Halakha
- Cyrus Cylinder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire
- Draconian constitution
- Solonian Constitution
- Gortyn code
- Twelve Tables of Roman Law
- Edicts of Ashoka of Buddhist Law
- Law of Manu
- Tirukkural, Ancient Tamil laws and ethics compiled by Thiruvalluvar
- Corpus Juris Civilis
- * Code of Justinian
- * Digest or Pandects
- * Institutes of Justinian
- * Novellae Constitutiones
- Sharia or Islamic Law
- Traditional Chinese law
- * Tang Code
- Visigothic Code
- Gentoo Code
- Early Irish law or Brehon Law