One of the oldest known prohibitions against murder appears in the Sumerian [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Ur-Nammu Code of Ur-Nammu] written sometime between 2100 and 2050 BC. The code states, "If a man commits a murder, that man must be killed." The payment of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weregild weregild] was an important legal [[mechanism]] in early Germanic society; the other common form of legal reparation at this time was blood [[revenge]]. If someone was killed, the [[guilty]] person would have to pay weregild to the [[victim]]'s [[family]]. | One of the oldest known prohibitions against murder appears in the Sumerian [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Ur-Nammu Code of Ur-Nammu] written sometime between 2100 and 2050 BC. The code states, "If a man commits a murder, that man must be killed." The payment of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weregild weregild] was an important legal [[mechanism]] in early Germanic society; the other common form of legal reparation at this time was blood [[revenge]]. If someone was killed, the [[guilty]] person would have to pay weregild to the [[victim]]'s [[family]]. |