Answer:
The Hammurabi's code was unjust because normally states an excessive punishment for the offenders.
Step-by-step explanation:
When some of the rules are analyzed closely, there is a bit of exaggeration in the punishment. Normally, when a crime or an offense happens in a society, and in order to keep peace in the city, there is an expectation of punishment towards the offender. Nevertheless, the punishment is not expected to be worst than the inicial offense. This is when it turns unjust, because only in terms of numbers the offender gets more than what he gave.
In the Hammurabi's code we find some cases in which the offender gets an harder action in consequence than the action that did initially. The examples are the following:
- The Law 129 states that if a man finds his wife with another man, both should be drowned. This is a case of excessive punishment because even if infidelity is a severe action, is not as severe as the highest punishment: killing somebody, which the offenders would receive. That makes that the punishers are acting worst than the offender in the first place, as murder is as well a crime.
- The Law 193 states that if a son disdain one of his parents, an eye of the kid should be pull out. This is also a case of excessive punishment because not realizing the importance of someone is bad, bad is not as cruel as to take someone's part of their body. An inmoral act is excessively punished and permitted by the code.
This two examples show that the method of the Hammurabi's code for maintaining peace is to punish offenders with a higher action, so that would make crime not attractive in the community. Even if that worked in their time, the regular judgement of an excessive punishment is unjust and that is the reason why the Hammurabi's code is unjust.