Law: Did you mean...?

The Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100-2050 BCE) is the oldest extant law code in the world. It was written by the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu (r. 2047-2030 BCE) or his son Shulgi of Ur (r. 2029-1982 BCE) centuries before the famous Code of Hammurabi was...

Law of Separation of Churches and the State, 1905. National Archives of France.

This law code is considered the oldest known law code surviving today. Many terracotta tablets of this law code have been excavated at several archaeological sites in Mesopotamia. This tablet was found at Nippur (modern Nuffar, Al-Qadisiyah...

This terracotta tablet is a smaller version of the original Code of Hammurabi to be used in schools and courts. The tablet was found at Nippur (modern Nuffar, Al-Qadisiyah Governorate, Iraq), southern Mesopotamia. Old Babylonian era, 1790...

The Justinian Code or Corpus Juris Civilis (Corpus of Civil Law) was a major reform of Byzantine law created by Emperor Justinian I (r. 527-565 CE) in 528-9 CE. Aiming to clarify and update the old Roman laws, eradicate inconsistencies and...

The entrance of the Church of Saint Pancrace in Aups after the 1905 Law of Separation of Church and State in France.

The Code of Hammurabi was a set of 282 laws inscribed in stone by the Babylonian king Hammurabi (r. 1795-1750 BCE) who conquered and then ruled ancient Mesopotamia. Although his law code was not the first, it was the most clearly defined...

The lawcode from Gortyn, Crete was written in the 5th century BCE and is said to be the largest epigraphic text in ancient Greek (8 m x 1.70 m).

Marble slab inscribed in Greek. This is the law of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus (reigned 491-518 CE), regulating the passage through Dardanelles customs. Byzantine Period, 6th century CE. From Abydos, Çanakkale, in modern-day...

Amphictionic law of Delphi, Pentelic marble stele, from Aegina, 4th century BCE. Louvre, Paris.