(Source: Wikipedia)
Eisenbrauns has published a new book on (an
early form of) administrative law during the Late Babylonian Period.
ABOUT THE BOOK
This book presents a reassessment of the
governmental systems of the Late Babylonian period—specifically those of the
Neo-Babylonian and early Persian empires—and provides evidence demonstrating
that these are among the first to have developed an early form of
administrative law.
The present study revolves around a particular
expression that, in its most common form, reads ḫīṭu ša šarri išaddad and
can be translated as “he will be guilty (of an offense) against the king.” The
authors analyze ninety-six documents, thirty-two of which have not been
previously published, discussing each text in detail, including the syntax of
this clause and its legal consequences, which involve the delegation of
responsibility in an administrative context. Placing these documents in their
historical and institutional contexts, and drawing from the theories of Max
Weber and S. N. Eisenstadt, the authors aim to show that the administrative
bureaucracy underlying these documents was a more complex, systematized, and
rational system than has previously been recognized.
Accompanied by extensive indexes, as well as
transcriptions and translations of each text analyzed here, this book breaks
new ground in the study of ancient legal systems.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
F. Rachel Magdalene is the author of On the
Scales of Righteousness: Neo-Babylonian Trial Law and the Book of Job.
Cornelia Wunsch is Research Associate at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, London University. Her most recent book, CUSAS
28: Documents of Judean Exiles and West Semites in Babylonia and the Collection
of David Sofer, is coauthored with Laurie Pearce and published Eisenbrauns.
Bruce Wells is Associate Professor of Middle Eastern
Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of The Law
of Testimony in the Pentateuchal Codes and coeditor, along with F.
Rachel Magdalene, of Law from the Tigris to the Tiber: The Writings of
Raymond Westbrook, the latter also published by Eisenbrauns.
More information
here
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