User:Ramazan Beibituly/sandbox

Background

If someone tries to investigate the time period when medicine has appeared, it will be relatively easier to do rather than, do the same with law, since researchers now have enough information about lifestyle of ancient societies to make theories about the roots of medicine, whereas the research on the roots of law will face obstacles of lack of information. According to Pearn (2016) law systems were not appeared at a certain moment of history, but has existed since human beings have started to live within the groups. This statement is worth consideration, since the law is based on morality and justice, which develop within us as we grow in a social group.>

Sources

This paper will mainly be based on the article “Hammurabi’s Code: A primary datum in the conjoined professions of medicine and law” written by John Pearn(2016). In this article the author investigated one of the first cases when the medicine was mentioned in the written set of law, and further developments of law. This work shed light on the road of law’s development from just mentioning health damage to an individual in rules to using medical experts as witnesses in court.

Early Legal Systems Prior to Written Documentation

Although the law system developped parallely to human society, it lacked some details of how those rules have to be used, and who was in charge of setting such rules. It was found that the first examples of specific laws were developed in post-Neolithic cultures. According to one of those sets of laws, the travelers who came to foreign tribe had to be under the protection of a leader of that tribe. Nevertheless, those sets of rules were not fully investigated due to the lack of information. Moreover, writing was not invented at that time(Pearn, 2016).

First Examples of Written Law

The first examples of a written set of laws emerged in the cultures that were located between two rivers: Tigris and Euphrates(e.g. Hammurabi’s code, Code of Lipit-Ishtar, and the aws of Dadusha). Those laws are substantially based on the popular principles of justice, such as “an eye for an eye”.

Medicine in Law System

Although those sets of laws stood out by their simplicity and wide range of usage, the medicine and physicians were only mentioned in the cases when a doctor hurts someone and in other similar situations:

“If a physician performs major surgery with a bronze lancet upon an awılu [a free citizen of high birth] and thus heals the awılu or opens an awılu’s  temple with a bronze lancet and thus heals the awılu’s  eye he shall take ten shekels of silver [as his fee].” [Hammurabi's Code, Law 215] (Pearn, 2016).

Respectively, medicine was not fully conjoined with law at this period of time compared to the modern law system.

Medical Experts in Court

One of the important factors of the legal system, using medical experts as witnesses in court, is one of the main differences between Bronze age and modern societies. According to Pearn(2016) this practice of engagement of medical experts in court was developed only in the fourth century B.C.E.. One of the first examples of this practice was the case of Ariston against Conon in ancient Greece, where Ariston was physically injured by Conon, so Ariston brought physician as a witness to prove his court.

Reference

1. Pearn, J. (2016). Hammurabi’s Code: A primary datum in the conjoined professions of medicine   and law. Medico-Legal Journal, 84(3), 125–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0025817216646038