Thought to be the earliest code of laws until the translation of the fragmentary Babylonian Code of Ur-Nammu in 1952, the Code of Hammurabi, King of the First Dynasty of Babylon, is the longest, best-organized and best-preserved legal text from the Ancient Near East. Probably issued about 1750 BCE, it has 282 sections. Johns's unabridged translation of the Code includes a useful index that functions as a topical digest of its contents.

xii, 88 pp.