Mesopotamian Laws of Homicide. In ancient Near Eastern law collections, laws regarding homicide are rare. In fact, except for a mention in the Sumerian laws of Ur- Namma (circa 2112 - circa 2095 B.C.E.)—"If a man commits murder, that man is to be killed"—Mesopotamian legal collections assume but do not clearly state that homicide was illegal. The Laws of Hammurabi (circa 1792 - circa 1750 B.C.E.) include no direct statement outlawing homicide. They include hypothetical examples of situations and circumstances that distinguished between intentional murder and various unintentional forms of homicide. The case of a wife who acted as an accessory to the murder of her husband is one of these hypothetical examples.

Homicide as a Property Offense. In the ancient Near East, where there was no criminal law in the modern sense, homicide was considered...