10 commandments vs law

7/27/2019 10 Commandments vs Law

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Are American Laws Based On

the Ten Commandments?

Many lawmakers and public figures have stated in the past few years that

the American legal system is based on the Ten Commandments, and have

used that as justification for the posting of said document and the

erection of monuments to them on public property. However, the truth is

there is little relationship between the American Legal System and that

set forth in the Bible.

The American legal system derives directly from the legal system of the

nation we were colonies of - Great Britain. The code of precedent we use is

based on English Common Law, and early cases where precedent was used

because laws did not yet exist to cover situations new to the fledgling nation

referred to English Common Law precedents. The English Common Law was

made the law of the Kingdom of England with the signing of the Magna

Carta, which was the first document in history to guarantee a level of rights

which the Crown could not revoke.

But surely English Common Law was based on the Ten

Commandments?

No. English Common Law is precedent-based law, gaining full force from

the time of the Norman Invasion in 1066. At the time of the signing of

the Magna Carta, it was solidly in place. It was a law of villages and

manors, not of Assize (Court of Appeals) Courts, and as such, relied

heavily on local customs and cultural artifacts. It was also the law

that applied to the common, rather than the noble. Royal and Noble law

was derived from Lex Salica, the Salic Law of Clovis in the 400's.

Common Law was a mixture of the laws derived from the werhgeld, or

tribal law, and remnants of Roman law, along with common sense andprecedent. These laws were all strongly secular, and though the medieval

mind was steeped in religion, the Salic Law and the werhgeld are

surprisingly low on religious content.


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Was the Lex Salica or the Corpus Juris Civillis based on the Ten

Commandments?

The Lex Salica was much more strongly based on the Ancient European

werhgeld than even the English Common Law. The Lex Salica mostlycodified what had been traditional practices amongst the tribal and

semi-nomadic peoples of Pre-Modern Europe. It is essential to remember

that, after the fall of Rome in 476 CE, Europe was without a unifying

government or even a solid communication system for over 300 years.

Local laws and rulings became much more important than codes or

distinctions made by distant princes or Bishops. The Corpus Juris

Civillis predates Christianity by several hundred years, although it

evolved even during that time. At the time that it was introduced to

Britain (53 BCE), Christianity had yet to be born, and the Roman Empirewas still polytheistic and polyreligious. While Jews were tolerated in

the Roman Empire, they were not the government, and few, if any sat on

the Senate. The Ten Commandments, and the rest of the Judaic Law, were

not parts of the Roman Civil Law Codes.

Roman Law was also precedent based, and it meshed well into werhgeld,

the Lex Salica, and later the English Common Law. For the most part,

Roman legal philosophy was based on the many Roman and Greek

philosophers who had written on the behavior of man and the governing of

an empire for centuries.

It is important for Americans to know where their laws came from. Our

laws are of natural evolution from the earliest days, when humans first

started living in groups of more than extended family members. Our laws

are heavily based in the Northern European traditions, and many of our

codes reflect that. Payment for wrongful death and injury is the salient

feature in the werhgeld, where even the families of slaves would be

compensated for the deaths or injuries. The concepts of Habeas Corpus,

innocent until proven guilty, and individual as agent of the governmentare all strong elements of the Corpus Juris Civillis. The laws of

inheritance that are still the chief precedent for probate in the US are

primarily derived from Lex Salica, while insurance law more closely

resembles the Lex Salica and the werhgeld than it does the Biblical laws.

Where do the Ten Commandments fit in?


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In short, it doesn't. The Ten commandments are a different cultural

document, derived loosely from the Code of Hammurabi, rather than the

Roman or Greek Tradition. The laws of the Old Testament of the Bible are

very loosely based on the Code of Hammurabi, though the interpretation

is poor, and many important pieces of the Code were left out of theCommandments. It is important to remember that while both code and

commandments reflect their culture, they were not developed for Northern

Europe. Instead the Code and the Commandments were developed almost

exclusively for a nomadic, desert dwelling people. Social interaction

variances will require adaptation. Since laws reflect the culture, and

culture is influenced by climate, religion, family structure, and

economics, the likelihood of two cultures, with differing climates,

economies, social structures and religions having legal systems that

bear more than a passing resemblance is small. Many of the institutionsof the Old Testament were foreign to Pre-Christian Europeans - fast

days, inherited slavery (as opposed to term debt bondage), a single day

for worship. The law code of Northern Europe would have been as out of

place in the Middle East as the Old Testament was for the Europeans.

Finally, Northern Europe was primarily agricultural, while the Judaic

tradition is semi-nomadic. A Small farming town has a different set of

legal needs than a wandering tribe in the desert, though the basics -

strictures against harming others, theft and respect for the law - tend

to be common.

Finally, remember that the Ten Commandments were and are a religious

document. The first three are solely religious, and the attending

regulations of Exodus are impractical, cruel, and outmoded for Modern

Western Society. Consider - if the Ten Commandments were our legal

basis, we would have to post police officers at every expensive car

dealership to write tickets for coveting. Obviously, there is only the

most tenuous resemblance between our laws and the laws of the Bible.

So what does this mean to me?

It means that you should be skeptical of politicians who claim the

United States' laws are founded on the Ten Commandments. This person

either has no real knowledge of our country's legal history or s/he's

doing something known in political circles as " social grandstanding",

trying to get a personal and social view legislated.


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Now, since three-quarters of the politicians in State and Federal

government are lawyers, it is inexcusable for most to not know the legal

history of the country. So, be wary!

It also means that you have ammunition when a judge or a school board

wants to put up copies of the Ten Commandments - there's no secular

purpose for them to be in any public place, and if they are in a public

place, then they violate the Establishment Clause of the First

Amendment, which states that Congress shall not favor any religion over

any others.

This Anti-Tract is Provided by: Constance EdwardsContact: [email protected]

2002 Permission is granted to freethought and Secular groups to

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10 commandments vs law

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