By the 22nd century BC, the traditional Sumerian ruler Ur-Nammu had formulated the primary law code, which consisted of casuistic statements (“if … then …”). Around 1760 BC, King Hammurabi further developed Babylonian law, by codifying and inscribing it in stone. Hammurabi positioned several copies of his law code all through the kingdom of Babylon as stelae, for the whole public to see; this became often known as the Codex Hammurabi. The most intact copy of these stelae was discovered within the 19th century by British Assyriologists, and has since been totally transliterated and translated into varied languages, including English,…