Code of law

A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the code was enacted, by a process of codification. Though the process and motivations for codification are similar in different common law and civil law systems, their usage is different. In a civil law country, a code of law typically exhaustively covers the complete system of law, such as civil law or criminal law. By contrast, in a common law country with legislative practices in the English tradition, modify the existing common law only to the extent of its express or implicit provision, but otherwise leaves the common law intact. A code entirely replaces the common law in a particular area, leaving the common law inoperative unless and until the code is repealed. In a third case of slightly different usage, in the United States and other common law countries that have adopted similar legislative practices, a code of law is a standing body of statute law on a particular area, which is added to, subtracted from, or otherwise modified by individual legislative enactments. List of ancient legal codes The legal code was a common feature of the legal systems of the ancient Middle East. The UrukAgina Law Code (2380–2360 BC), which most probably is predated by older laws, which yet have to be discovered, the Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100–2050 BC), the Law Code of Eshnunna (approximately 100 years before Lipit-Ishtar), the Law Code of Lipit-Ishtar (1934–1924 BC), and the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1760 BC), are among the earliest and best preserved legal codes, originating from Sumer, Mesopotamia (now Iraq). In the Roman empire, a number of codifications were developed, such as the Twelve Tables of Roman law (first compiled in 450 BC) and the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian, also known as the Justinian Code (429–534 AD). However, these law codes did not exhaustively describe the Roman legal system.