Law and the Technologies of Communication

By Peter Tiersma

Ancient Mesopotamia

Laws of Ur-Nummu (2100 BC)[Schoyen collection, MS 2064]

Laws of Ur-Nummu (2100 BC)(excerpts)

# 1. If a man commits a murder, that man must be killed.# 2. If a man commits a robbery, he will be killed.# 3. If a man commits a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned

and pay 15 shekels of silver.# 7. If the wife of a man followed after another man and he

slept with her, they shall slay that woman, but that male shall be set free.

# 8. If a man proceeded by force, and deflowered the virgin slavewoman of another man, that man must pay five shekels of silver.

# 13. If a man is accused of sorcery he must undergo ordeal by water; if he is proven innocent, his accuser must pay 3 shekels.

Code of Hammurabi

Hammurabi Code subjects, No. 1

• libel; • corrupt administration of justice; • theft, • receiving stolen goods, • robbery, • looting, and burglary; • murder, manslaughter, and bodily injury; • abduction; • liability for negligent damage to fields and crop damage caused by

grazing cattle; • illegal felling of palm trees; • legal problems of trade enterprises, in particular, the relationship

between the merchant and his employee traveling overland, and embezzlement of merchandise;

Gortyn Code, 7th century BC

Athens: the Agora

Law of King Æthelberht of Kent

Gif man mannan ofslæhđ, medume leodgeld C scillinga gebete

“If a person kills someone, let him pay an ordinary person-price, 100 shillings.”

Book of Statutes, ca.1445[Schoyen collection, MS 1355]

Act of Parliament, 1702

Plain Meaning Rule

The only rule for construction of Acts of Parliament is, that they should be construed according to the intent of the Parliament which passed the Act. If the words of the Statute are in themselves precise and unambiguous, then no more can be necessary than to expound those words in that natural and ordinary sense. The words themselves alone do, in such case, best declare the intention of the law giver."

Lord Chief Justice Nicolas Tindal, 1844