The first legal promulgations and lawcodes from ancient Mesopotamia and the Hittites to Exodus and Deuteronomy, Archaic Greece, and Egypt, and the origins of jurisprudence. What classes are regulated by what institutions? These are the traditions behind Western concepts of law, ultimately arising from ancient theologies.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Graduate and law students will present, as though for a conference, a coherent set of provisions (e.g., sexual torts in the Middle Assyrian Laws) with an analysis of theories of compensation or punishment, in close reading. They will write a final paper addressing such a bloc, or principle, through lawcodes, case records, and narratives through canon law or into Greek and/or Roman traditions.
Athena Title
The Origins of Law
Prerequisite
Second year or higher student standing or permission of department
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to read and understand the promulgations and analyze the legal class structure of Sumerian, Babylonian, Hittite, Assyrian, Israelite and Archaic Greek societies and communicate this knowledge - written and orally - to the reading of narratives involving legal principles or issues of justice.
By the end of this course, students will be able to identify conflicting viewpoints between state law and traditional practice (as in Antigone) and consider circumstances necessitating that conflict.
By the end of this course, students will be able to identify principles of jurisprudence and target areas underlying particular codes, and how to approach the problem of their social embedment, supporting their conclusion with sound reasoning and judgement.
By the end of this course, students will be able to hypothesize about the relation between control of law-making and political processes pertinent to particular cultures at particular times, supporting their arguments with sources and sound reasoning.
Topical Outline
1. Sumerian lawcodes and the start of royal regulation
2. Pre-Hammurabi Akkadian law (primarily, Eshnunna)
3. Hammurabi and the status of legal promulgations
4. The Hittite laws and social conventions
5. Middle Assyrian laws
6. Biblical law: JE, the Covenant Code, Deuteronomic adaptation of the Covenant Code, Deuteronomy, and the Priestly Source
7. Early Cretan lawcodes and myths of nomothetoi (lawgivers) in Greece
8. Drago, Lycurgus, Solon
9. Implications for subsequent codes and conversations -- Ezra, Udjahoreset, Twelve Tables, Mishnah
10. Imperium and legislation
11. Law, Canon, and Interpretative Trajectories
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
