Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far again as 3000 BC, was based on the concept of Ma’at and characterised by custom, rhetorical speech, social equality and impartiality. By the 22nd century BC, the ancient Sumerian ruler Ur-Nammu had formulated the first 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 dominion of Babylon as stelae, for the complete public to see; this grew to become known as the Codex Hammurabi. The …