Well before Hammurabi we probably generated laws to govern society. All religions represent a similar attempt to give rules by which to live. Various constitutions have been written which do the same for states today although the UK prefers to make it up as they go along. In the main the underlying aim has been one of control and as the laws were written by educated patricians you may well assume the control was to maintain their power. Hence the history of revolutions if not of war itself.
Since laws are about who has power, over what, and who has not it is not a very useful instrument when we consider empowering the individual to express their talents. The most important laws (don’t kill) have not changed but the tens of thousands of small er ones need a radical overhaul with more of an emphasis on the kind of human being we want, rather than the kind of society the patricians want.
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