LAWER

Code of Hammurabi

1750 BCE

From 1792-1750 BCE King Hammurabi lived in Babylon and ruled the Mesopotamia area. In 1750 BCE King Hammurabi created the first written laws, and made them public for everyone to see. These laws were engraved into stone and consisted of 282 laws with their specific punishments. Your social status could determine your punishment in these times. Equal punishment only existed when both parties were of equal rank.

Code of Hammurabi Part 2

1750 BCE

The punishments for these laws were built with the saying "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." An example of this could be something like, " If a man builds a house badly and it falls and kills the owner, the builder is to be killed. If the owner's son is killed, then the builder's son is to be killed." The code of Hammurabi had a huge impact on our current legal system because all of our laws are written down and made public, as well as the fact that all the laws have specific punishments.

Justinian code Part 2

550 BCE

Part Three portrays how to utilize the laws. Part Four was all of the new laws. This is important to Canada today because it set the bar for everyone being treated equally.

Justinian code

550 BCE

Emperor Justinian ruled the Byzantine Empire. He created equity between the men with property and the men without. Despite the fact that equality wasn't between all people, it was just the beginning. There were four principle parts to his code. Part One was all the laws from the past Emperor. Part Two was the present sovereign's supposition on the past laws.

Feudalism

800

While King William was one of many kings during the time of feudalism, he was the one to start it. Feudalism flourished in Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Hierarchy was very important during this time, the highest class was The King, then nobles, then knights, and then finally peasants. The King owned all of the land, but he divided it among the nobles, and they then divided it among the peasants.

Feudalism Part 2

800

The peasants worked and farmed this land for protection from the army. From feudalism came judges as The King would appoint many judges throughout the land to solve cases. Common law also came from this, instead of every judge providing a different punishment, common law made it so that each law would have a set punishment that wouldn't differ between each case.

Magna Carta

1215

Magna Carta means Great Charter. It was a principle that stated “rulers are to obey the law and that they couldn’t change or restrict people’s freedom and legal rights without reason or consent”. The nobility in England forced King John to sign it as he abused his power and thought himself above the law. The Magna Carta also gave the accused the right to appear in front of a court in a reasonable amount of time. This right is currently in Canada’s Charter Of Rights and Freedoms.

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

1982

Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, helped create the Constitution Act,1982. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Constitution Act. The Charter is a constitutional law that lists all of the civil rights and freedoms for all Canadians at every level of government. It also details the enforcement of these rights and freedoms.

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Part 2

1982

As a constitutional law, you can only change it by having the federal government and 2/3 of provinces with 50% of the population agreeing to change it. This impacts our current system by making it very hard for the general population's rights and freedoms to be taken away.