e can say, "As yet there was no
law." Our chief object to-day is to discover what the law was. For the
most part, and until lately, we were compelled almost entirely to infer
this from such contracts as were drawn up between parties and sworn to,
witnessed, and sealed. Among them were a large number of legal decisions
which recorded the ruling of some judicial functionary on points of law
submitted to him. These and the hints given by the legal phrase-books had
allowed us to attain considerable knowledge of what was legal and right in
ancient Babylonia or Assyria.

(M51) But the question remained, Was it "right" or "law"? Were there
enactments by authority, making clear what was right, and in some cases
creating right, where there was none before? There was much to suggest the
existence of enacted law, even of a code of laws, and the word "law" had
been freely applied. But there was no known ascription of any law to a
definite legislator. There was no word for "law," only the terms
"judgments," "right," and "wrong." It was significant that the parties to
a suit always seemed to have agreed on what was right between man and man,
and then to have sworn by their gods to observe the "right."

(M52) We definitely know of one great code of laws, that of Hammurabi, and
we are greatly strengthened in the view that there were laws, and even
codes, centuries before him. The way in which contracts quote the phrases
of his code is exactly parallel to the way in which far earlier contracts
quote phrases which are evidently extracts, in the phrase-books, from some
connected work. Hence we are warranted in thinking that these extracts
come from a Sumerian code of laws. We do not yet know to whom we should
ascribe its compilation.

(M53) For the Code of Hammurabi is also a compilation. He did not invent
his laws. Phrases found in them appear in contracts before his time.
Doubtless he did enact some fresh laws. But he built for the most part on
other men's foundations. The decisions already passed by the judges had
made men ready to accept as "right" what was now made "law." But the
question is only carried back a stage further. Did not those judges decide
according to law? In some cases we know they did, for we have the law
before them. When we try to penetrate further into the background of
history we can only surmise. Documents fail us to prove whether judges
first made or administered the law. But we have now a very high antiquity