What legal concept does the following quote from the Code of Hammurabi demonstrate?
“If anyone opens his ditches to water his crop, but is careless, and the water floods his neighbor’s field, he shall pay his neighbor corn for his loss.”
A. The Babylonians used corn as a barter currency to pay legal fines.
Incorrect. While corn was used as the currency to pay the fine, that does not demonstrate a legal principle.
B. The punishment should be much more severe than the crime in order to deter individuals from committing it again.
Incorrect. The punishment in this passage fits the crime. A person who damages a person’s crops must replace the crop destroyed.
C. Everyone is subject to the same laws and faces the same punishments for the same crime.
Correct! This passage demonstrates the rule of law because it applies the punishment for flooding a person’s field to “anyone.”
D. The intent of the action matters. A careless person should receive less of a sentence than a person who willfully committed the act.
Incorrect. This passage only addresses the punishment for a careless individual. It does not say anything about a person who willfully floods a neighbor’s field.
Use the excerpts and your knowledge of social studies to answer the following question.
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Which of the following lists the historical documents shown above in the correct chronological order?
A. 1, 2, 3
Incorrect. Hammurabi’s Code is first in history.
B. 1, 3, 2
Incorrect. Hammurabi’s Code is first in history.
C. 3, 1, 2
Correct! Hammurabi’s Code, then Justinian’s Code, then the Magna Carta.
D. 3, 2, 1
Incorrect. The Magna Carta came after Justinian’s Code.
“Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
How does the above excerpt to 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution demonstrate the principle of the rule law?
A. It requires that the government must have a fair procedure in order to find them guilty of a crime and punish them.
Correct! The amendment requires “due process” and “equal protection of the laws.” Both of these are integral to the rule of law.
B. The 14th Amendment clearly defines the punishments set forth for a crime.
Incorrect. The Amendment requires that everyone must be treated equally by the law, but does not define the punishment.
C. It requires that every state in the United States must have the exact same laws so that a person is treated the same wherever he or she goes.
Incorrect. The Amendment requires that each state provide all citizens the equal protection of the laws, but does not say that all states must have the same laws.
D. It establishes that the punishment must fit the crime.
Incorrect. The above excerpt does not address proportionality in sentencing, but that the state must have a fair process in order to impose it.