Editing Codification (law) (section)

== History ==
Ancient [[Sumer]]'s [[Code of Ur-Nammu]] was compiled ''circa'' 2050–1230 BC, and is the earliest known surviving [[civil code]]. Three centuries later, the [[Babylonia]]n king [[Hammurabi]] enacted the [[Code of Hammurabi|set of laws named after him]].

Important codifications were developed in the ancient [[Roman Empire]], with the compilations of the ''[[Twelve Tables|Lex Duodecim Tabularum]]'' and much later the ''[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]''. These codified laws were the exceptions rather than the rule, however, as during much of ancient times [[Roman law]]s were left mostly uncodified.

The first ''permanent'' system of codified laws could be found in [[imperial China]],{{NoteTag|See [[Chinese law]].}} with the compilation of the ''[[Tang Code]]'' in AD 624. This formed the basis of the Chinese [[criminal law|criminal code]], which was eventually replaced by the ''[[Great Qing Legal Code]]'', which was in turn abolished in 1912 following the [[Xinhai Revolution]] and the establishment of the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]. The new [[law of the Republic of China|laws of the Republic of China]] were inspired by the German codified work, the [[Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch]]. A very influential example in Europe was the French [[Napoleonic code]] of 1804.

Upon confederation, the [[Iroquois]] created constitutional [[wampum]], each component symbolizing one of the many laws within the 117 articles. The union of the five original nations occurred in 1142,<ref>{{cite news |last1=McClure |first1=Bruce |title=The Eclipse That Marked The Start Of The Iroquois Confederacy |url=https://earthsky.org/human-world/solar-eclipse-marks-beginning-of-iroquois-confederacy/ |access-date=14 August 2021 |publisher=EarthSky |date=July 15, 2019}}</ref> and its unification narrative served the basis for the Iroquois laws.<ref>{{cite web |title=Kayanlaˀ Kówa – Great Law of Peace |url=https://oneida-nsn.gov/our-ways/our-story/great-law-of-peace/ |website=Oneida |publisher=Oneida Nation |access-date=14 August 2021}}</ref>

Systems of religious laws include the [[halakha]] of Judaism and the ''sharia'' of Islam. The use of civil codes in ''[[sharia]]'' began with the [[Ottoman Empire]] in the 19th century. American legal scholar [[Noah Feldman]] has written that the Ottoman codification of the sharia reduced the power of the religious scholarly class, upsetting the [[balance of powers]] and the traditional [[uncodified constitution]] of Islamic societies and leading to the rise of [[autocrat]]s unconstrained by [[rule of law]] in the [[Muslim world]].<ref name="Feldman">{{cite magazine | author=Feldman | first=Noah | date=March 16, 2008 | title=Why shariah? | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/magazine/16Shariah-t.html | magazine=[[The New York Times Magazine]] | issn=0028-7822 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080321050106/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/magazine/16Shariah-t.html?;partner=rssnyt&;emc=rss&ex=1363320000&;ei=5088&;en=8a9c9bceeb43a1ae&pagewanted=all | archive-date=2008-03-21}}</ref>

{{further|Legal history}}