The History of Law

Historically law was never confined to the West: it developed across the various civilisations of the world. What follows is a summary of the history of law in the different great civilisations:

• Sumerian civilisation (3500–1900 BC)

• The rise of law: Sumer is among the first civilisations to have set down written laws. The oldest of these is the Code of Ur-Nammu (about 2100 BC), laid down by King Ur-Nammu of the city of Ur. It took up civil and criminal matters — marriage, debt, and offences.
• Its influence: Sumerian law helped lay the foundations of the legal orders of the later civilisations of Mesopotamia.

• Ancient Egyptian civilisation (3000–30 BC)

• The legal system: ancient Egyptian law rested on the pharaonic system, the Pharaoh being regarded as a divine ruler holding absolute authority. The laws were a mixture of custom and religious tradition.
• Its salient laws: the laws attended to preserving the social order and punishing offences such as theft and homicide, and were strongly marked by religion — Ma'at, the goddess of truth and justice, standing for the notions of right and justice in Egyptian society.

• Indian civilisation (1500 BC to the present)

• The legal system in the Vedas: the history of Indian law goes back to the Vedas, the sacred texts of the ancient Indian religions. Among them is the Manusmriti, one of the oldest legal texts of India, written about 200 BC, which takes up legal questions such as property, punishment and marriage.
• Religious law: the laws of dharma, drawn from the religious texts, were an essential part of social and legal life in ancient and medieval India. Their influence continued into the period of British colonial rule.

• Chinese civilisation (2070 BC to the present)

• Law under the Shang dynasty: the oldest Chinese laws are said to go back to the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC), though they were not written. Written law came into substantial use under the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC).
• The philosophy of law: in ancient China the emphasis fell on philosophies such as Confucianism, which insisted on virtue and moral rule. Yet the Legalist school arose during the Warring States period (475–221 BC), insisting on the importance of strong and determinate law for the preservation of order.
• The influence of the empires: under the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) a formal and enduring legal system was developed, which formed the foundation of Chinese imperial law until the fall of the empire in 1912.

• Ancient Greek civilisation (800–146 BC)

• The legal system: in ancient Greece the laws differed from city to city. Athens was a principal centre for the development of democratic law, where the codes of Draco (about 620 BC) and Solon (about 594 BC) were laid down, directed at limiting the authority of the nobility and giving the people greater rights.
• The philosophical influence: Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle helped develop legal thought, and so laid the philosophical foundations of later Western law.

• Roman civilisation (753 BC–476 AD)

• The Roman legal system: Roman law is regarded as among the most influential legal systems in history. It included the Twelve Tables (450 BC), the first written law to be proclaimed publicly.
• The development of the law: Roman law developed over the centuries to take in a great many civil, criminal and religious provisions. It was the foundation of modern European civil law, and its influence continues in many countries to this day.

• Islamic civilisation (seventh century to the present)

• Islamic law: after the rise of Islam in the seventh century, the Qur'an and the Sunna became the two essential sources of law. Islamic jurisprudence — the reasoning of the scholars — developed to cover the personal, social and economic aspects of life.
• Its spread and influence: Islamic law spread across many states of the Middle East and North Africa and parts of Asia and Europe, and remains part of the legal system of many Muslim countries today.

• African civilisation

• Customary law: in sub-Saharan Africa, societies relied on customary law, transmitted orally across the generations. These laws reflected the social and religious values of their communities and differed from region to region.
• The influence of colonialism: with the coming of European colonial rule, many colonising states imposed their own law on African peoples, which brought customary law and Western law together.

• The civilisations of the Americas

• Tribal legal orders: the indigenous societies of North and South America followed customary laws administered by tribal councils. These laws rested on tradition, on social norms, and on a belief in natural balance.
• The influence of European colonisation: the indigenous legal orders of the Americas were profoundly affected by the arrival of the Europeans, new colonial laws being imposed and the indigenous ones pushed to the margin.

• Modern European civilisation

• Constitutional law: in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, states began to adopt written constitutions ordering authority and protecting individual rights. The American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Revolution (1789) were among the most notable examples of this change.
• International law: international law developed considerably in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the establishment of bodies such as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice to strengthen peace and cooperation between states.

Law is the outcome of the development of the various human societies, and it developed in parallel across many civilisations of the world. For all the differences of legal and cultural frame, every society has sought to do justice and to order social life in a way that serves its interests and secures its stability.