Recently, Jane and I dedicated a podcast to the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi ruled over ancient Babylon, and he had some pretty strict laws. And there were a lot of them. You can get the full story in Jane’s article, titled, “What’s so important about the Code of Hammurabi?” As Jane explains, the code is one of the most “well-preserved” and “comprehensive” sets of “ancient laws in existence.” Never heard of the Code of Hammurabi? Well, if you’ve heard the expression, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” you’ve got the basic idea.

As much as history scholars tout the importance of the code, I wondered (aloud, in the podcast) whether it’s something that law students still actively study. In short, is the code still relevant? Or can we learn something from it that’s applicable to codes of conduct today?