Royal law codes served a few different purposes in ancient times. I’ll focus on two of them here, though I recognize there are other ways these codes might have played a role in these societies.

1) They served to legitimate the rule of the monarch in question. Hammurabi’s Code begins by appealing to several Babylonian deities, including Marduk, Bel, Ea, and others and claiming that he has their divine favor. By having the authority of the gods behind him, Hammurabi indicates his suitability to rule. By following that declaration of divine support with a legal code, Hammurabi indicates his ability to rule judiciously.

Connected to this, many of these laws find parallels with what we see from other Babylonian rulers. The Laws of Eshnunna are a couple of centuries older than the Laws of Hammurabi, and while there are a lot of differences, there are also a lot of similarities. When Hammurabi established this law code that was actually already pretty much in effect, he shows that his sense of justice and leadership will be consistent with the earlier rulers who also had the blessing of the gods. I’d argue that this is the most important function of the law code.

Some of the laws seem really obscure and strange to have made the top 282. For instance, there’s a law about what to do if you have an ox that is a habitual gorer (a law that also shows up in both the Laws of Eshnunna and the Hebrew Bible). But as far as I’m aware, exactly none of the legal receipts that we have from any period of Babylonian history (or Israelite history, since it shows up there also) indicate that this law was ever enforced/enacted in a practical situation.* So if habitually goring oxen weren’t actually a significant problem in the ancient near East, why do they keep putting stuff about it in their important law codes?

Because it’s part of the tradition. You tie into the long-standing legal traditions, say that you’re the one instituting and upholding those traditions, and that makes your authority look bigger and more long-standing. You include these laws because they’re the laws, they have been the laws, and if you’re going to claim the deities support your rule, your rule has to have some level of consistency and longevity beyond a normal human lifespan (which is also why the famous Sumerian King Lists indicate reigns of thousands and thousands of years. Royalty is next to divinity. It’s helpful for your reign to be able to blur the lines).

2)The harsh sentences of the law code become incentive for people to work out their issues interpersonally or under the authority of local judges or leaders. My archaeology professor referred to these law codes as backstops. You’re having a dispute with your neighbor and you can’t come to a good resolution? Better get it figured out, because if it has to go all the way to the law code to figure it out, that’s gonna be very black and white (and someone’s probably gonna get killed over it).

But I really do think that that’s of secondary importance. Legitimation is the primary purpose of these codes. Actual governance is up to local judges and rulers.

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*Of course we have only an infinitesimally small percentage of legal receipts, so maybe it was a bigger issue and we just don’t happen to have any of the specific legal documentation for those cases. But it does at least make one wonder why so many law codes include this law if it doesn’t appear to have been a particularly prevalent issue.

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