Report No. 58
The concept of justice
2.3. Justice, it has been stated1, is a concept that has been mooted since the Sumerians, so far as recorded history is concerned. About 2050 B.C., Urnammu, King of Ur, set out a law code intended to insure justice in the land and promote the welfare of its citizens. Because these were pragmatic people not inclined to discourse on a high level abstraction, the laws confined themselves to protection of the weak against the economically strong, the fisc against corruption, the ignorant against the knowledgeable, and to assuring punishment to perpetrators of physical harm. "It is what every law code since has sought to accomplish; and it implicitly contains an absolute concept of justice against which conduct can be measured."2
1. Earl Murphy, Book Review of Kirchheimer, Political Justice, (1961-62) in 35 Temp LQ 444.
2. Earl Murphy, Book Review of Kirchheimer, Political Justice, (1961-62) in 35 Temp LQ 444.
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