Discuss the function of written law in ancient Babylon.

The Code of Hammurabi of Babylon is the first evidence of
a written code. Hammurabi called himself "king of the four corners of the world" and
proposed the code to remove the wicked, insure welfare, promote justice, and prevent
oppression in order to be a "light" to the land:

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To promote the welfare of the people...to cause
justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and evil, so that the strong might
not oppress the weak, to rise like the sun over the people and to light up the
land.

By modern standards,
the Code of Hammurabi is harsh. Death was the proper sentence for theft or false
accusations, and often death was imposed by means considered appropriate:
Examples:

If
any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into
the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But
if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had
brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall
take possession of the house that had belonged to his
accuser.

If any one receive into his house a runaway male
or female slave of the court, or of a freedman, and does not bring it out at the public
proclamation of the major domus, the master of the house shall be put to
death.

If fire break out in a house, and some one who comes
to put it out cast his eye upon the property of the owner of the house, and take the
property of the master of the house, he shall be thrown into that self-same
fire.

Two important points
about Hammurabi's code should be emphasized:

1. It
   relied on the principle of lex talionis--the law of retaliation.
   Under this principle, the punishment fit the crime. A prime example of lex
   talionis is in the Old Testament Pentateuch:
   

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An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a foot
for foot, and a burn for a
burn

2.  Social Distinction
was recognized and punishment meted out differently according to class distinction. For
example, if a commoner were to injure a nobleman, he was put to death; yet if a nobleman
injured a commoner, he paid a fine in silver.