Justice Split by Class

The Code's most striking feature is class-based justice. Penalties varied with the social status of victim and offender. If a nobleman blinded another nobleman, his own eye was destroyed. But if he blinded a commoner, he merely paid a fine of sixty shekels.

If he blinded an enslaved person, he paid the owner half that person's value. A doctor who killed a nobleman during surgery lost his hands, but killing an enslaved patient required only financial compensation to the owner.