Codification (law) facts for kids

Codification in law means gathering all the laws of a place and writing them down in an organized way. Think of it like putting all the rules for a game into one clear rulebook. These collected laws usually cover different topics and form a "legal code" or "book of law." This idea of having laws written down in a code is a main part of civil law legal systems, which are used in many countries around the world.

History of Written Laws

People have been writing down laws for a very long time. One of the oldest known collections of laws is the Code of Ur-Nammu from ancient Sumer. It was put together around 2100-2050 BC. About 300 years later, the Babylonian king Hammurabi created his famous set of laws, known as the Code of Hammurabi.

Religious laws, like the Torah, were also written down and organized. The ancient Roman Empire had important collections of laws, such as the Twelve Tables. Much later, the Corpus Juris Civilis was put together. Even with these examples, for a long time, most Roman laws were not written down in a single, organized code.

The first permanent system of written laws was found in China. This was the Tang Code, created in AD 624. It became the main set of criminal laws in China. Later, it was replaced by the Great Qing Legal Code. This code was then removed in 1912 after the Xinhai Revolution, when the Republic of China was formed. The new laws of the Republic of China were inspired by the German legal code, the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch. A very important example in Europe was the Napoleonic Code from France, created in 1804.

Another early system of laws is Hindu law, which was written down by Manu and is called the Manu Smriti. These laws date back to the 2nd century BC. In Islamic Sharia law, the use of civil codes began with the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century AD.

Images for kids

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  Hardcover of the 1917 Code of Canon Law

See also

In Spanish: Codificación (derecho) para niños