Lex talionis

Lex talionis (literally the Latinfor "law as retaliation") or law of retaliation is the belief that one of the purposes of the law is to provide retaliation for an offended party. This early belief is reflected in the code of Hammurabiand in the laws of the Old Testament (e.g., Exod. 21:23-25. Lev. 24:18-21, Deut. 19:21). The most common expression of lex talionis is "an eye for an eye". Legal codes following the principle of lex talionis have one thing in common: prescribed counterpunishment for an offense. In the famous legal code written by Hammurabi, the principle of exact reciprocity is very clear. For example, if a person caused the death of another person's child, that person's child would be put to death.

Various ideas regarding the origins of lex talionis exist, but a common and accepted one is that it developed as early civilizations grew and a less well-established system for retribution of wrongs, feudsand vendettas, threatened the social fabric. Despite having been replaced with newer modes of legal theory, lex talionis systems served a critical purpose in the development of social systems — the establishment of a body whose purpose was to enact the retaliation and ensure that this was the only punishment. This body was the state in one of its earliest forms.

Examples

It is improper to say that lex talionis specifically refers to eye-for-an-eye codes of justice. Rather it applies to the broader class of legal systems that specify formulaic penalities for specific crimes. Some propose that this was at least in part intended to prevent excessive punishment at the hands of either an avenging private party or the state. The simplest example is the eye for an eyeprinciple. In that case, the rule was that punishment must be exactly equal to the crime. Conversely, the twelve tables of Rome merely prescribed particular penalties for particular crimes. Under the British Common Law, successful plantiffs were entitled to repayment equal to their loss (in monetary terms). In the modern tortlaw system, this has been extended to translate non-economic losses into money as well.

An alternative

The only known alternative to lex talionis is the "correctional" prisonsystem first instituted by the Americans in the early 20th century. Rather than retribution, this introduced the idea that the purpose of law enforcement is to correct the deviant nature of criminals by compelling them to reflect and regret their crimes during a lengthy incarceration.

Criticism

Some say that retaliation is unethical and that two wrongs do not make a right. Even though it may be hard to do in practice, certain belief systems such as Christianityteach individuals to forgivethose who wrong them, rather than seek retribution for a wrong. Other belief systems adhere to similar concepts, such as the Taoistwu wei which encourages a wronged individual to simply accept the infraction and to take the least "resistive" action to correct it, if any action need to be taken at all. Buddhismstresses the weight of karma: one can take retributive action, but that retributive action is not without its consequences, and living on a finite planet guarantees that the suffering incurred by a retributive action will return to the individual who was wronged (as well as the one who did the wrong-doing). Some subscribe to the Golden Ruleof ethicsrather than any law of retaliation.

See also

• Retributive justice
• Code of Hammurabide:Talion

fr:Loi du Talion nl:ius talionis pl:Talion pt:Lei do talião sv:Talionprincipen

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex+talionis Wikipedia article Lex talionis.