Code of Hammurabi — One of History's Oldest Law Codes

The Code of Hammurabi, inscribed on a 2.25-metre basalt stele by Babylonian king Hammurabi around 1750 BCE, is one of the world's oldest and most complete written legal codes. Its 282 laws cover property rights, wages, trade, marriage, and criminal punishment — famously introducing the principle of proportional justice ('an eye for an eye'). The stele was discovered in 1901 in Susa, Iran, and is now housed in the Louvre, Paris. It predates Roman law by over a millennium and influenced legal systems across the ancient Near East.

Earlier law codes exist, such as the Code of Ur-Nammu (~2100 BCE), but Hammurabi's is the most complete surviving example.