古代两河流域国家保护弱势公民群体的历史传统

Mesopotamian Tradition of State Protecting Weak Groups of Citizens and Establishing Social Justice

通过分析《乌尔那穆法典》、《里皮特伊什塔尔法典》和闻名世界的《汉穆腊比法典》三部法典的前言,我们发现古代两河流域文明的立法理论和实践的核心思想——国家最重要的职能是以法律维护社会公平和阶级和谐。这些法典都在前言中宣称国家的代表——国王制定法律的目的是"在国中彰明正义,消灭邪恶和罪行,使强不凌弱,公正对待孤女和寡妇"。苏美尔时期的拉旮什、伊辛、拉尔萨和古巴比伦王朝的国王们的铭文中也提及他们建立了社会公正。另外,根据乌尔、伊辛、拉尔萨、巴比伦和其他王朝颁布的年名,可以知道许多国王在其统治的第一年就在全国宣布废除债务,解放债务奴隶法令,并在年名中称"在国内建立了公正之年",解负令的基本内容可以从《巴比伦王阿米嚓杜喀的敕令》中发现。依靠法律和行政主持公正是两河流域的历史传统。

From the prologues of the Law Code of Ur- Nanmau, Code of Lipit - Ishtar and famous Code of Hammurabi, we have found that the core thought of the 3,000- year＇s Mesopotamian civilization, lawmaking theories and practice was that the most important function of the state was to keep, with laws, the justice of .society and harmony of various classes of .society with laws. These codes of laws declared in their prolugues that the aim of lawmaking by the kings, the representatives of states, was ＂to keep justice, exteminate improbity and criminal acts, to make the strong not oppress the weak, and to treat the widows and girl orphans fairly＂. From the inscriptions of the kings of the Old Sumerian and Gudea dynasties in Lagssh, the Ur Ⅲ, Isin, Larsa and the Old Babylonian dynastic, we learn that the Mesopotamian kings established social justice, abrogated debts, reduced miscellaneous taxes, liberated the debt slaves, protected poor people, orphans, widows and other weak communities, reversed wrong court .sentences of innocents, fixed evenly commodity prices, standardized weights and measures, pursued the equality between man and woman, assured wages of craftsmen and laborers, as well as ratiorts of slaves etc. According to the year names of Ur, Isin, Larsa, Babylon and other dynasty, many kings in the first year of their rules declared at whole country the abrogation of debts and liberation of obligated slaves, and used this as the year name of the next year： ＂the year of establishment of justice ＂. Using laws and administrative methods to keep a just society was the state tradition of Mesopotamian Civilizations.