AJ+Crime&Punishment+laws

Laws were very important to ancient civilisations. They kept a well structured society.

In Greece, there were two main creators of law. In the middle of the 7th century BC, Draco made his laws, which were very strict. Draco's laws were so harsh, they gave birth to the word "draconian", which means great severity. Soon after, Solon enforced his laws but still kept some of Draco's. Solon's laws were less strict.

There were five kinds of laws: 1. Tort laws are when someone does physical harm to someone or someones' property. A good example of this is murder. 2. Family laws were made by Solon. They regulated the behaviour of married couples, adoption, inheritance and anything to do with family. 3. Public laws were made by Solon and Draco, they dictated the operation of public services. They also dictated how much land could be owned and the rules of exporting goods. 4. Procedural laws instructed officials on law enforcement. An example of this would be how many witnesses were needed for a homicide case. This law gave step by step information. 5. The rule of law givers (appointed officials who gave people the responsibility to write laws). Law givers were considered political outsiders.

Unfortunately, not much is known about Egyptian law, except that the Pharaoh was very strict and there were about eight books on these laws. When Rome took over Egypt, Rome enforced Roman law on the Egyptians.

Major changes to Roman law occurred around 450 BC with the coming of the Twelve Tables, the longest surviving piece of writing from the Romans. The tables are:

I - Procedure for courts and trials II - Trials continued III - Debt IV - Rights of fathers over families V - Legal guardianship and inheritance laws VI - Acquisition and possetion VII - Land rights VIII - Laws of injury IX - Public law X - Sacred law XI - Supplement I XII - Supplement II

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