Four Thousand Years Ago

Reading the Code reveals a society far more complex than most people expect from four thousand years ago. There were laws setting the fees surgeons could charge, the liability of builders whose structures collapsed, and the rights of women to own property, initiate divorce, and run a business. The Code is famous for its harsh eye for an eye principle, but the surprise is how much of it reads like modern contract law — damages for construction failure, refunds for bad goods, and protection for buyers against fraud. Much of today's commercial law still follows the same basic logic.