Scribal Initiative in the Clarification and Interpretation of Mesopotamian Law Collections

At the Dawn of Legal History: Teaching Law in Ancient Mesopotamia

“…37 The same is true for the integration of customary practices and of earlier legal dispositions into the Code, which may be taken as a sign of nearly dogmatic thinking as well as of legal knowledge (Neumann 2004, 92). In addition, scribes were willing to interpret and clarify the provisions of the codes in various ways, by means of translation, of creating new variants while recopying, and of revising material shared among various law collections (Barmash 2008). Obviously, all of the above required not only wide juridical knowledge, but also the ability of correct legal reasoning as well as a solid dose of creativity.…”