Lipit-Ishtar Law Code

The Laws (parts where you see … denote breaks in the tablet and therefore in the translation)

1. …which had been set up… .
2. … the property of the father’s house from its … .
3. …the son of the state official, the son of the palace official, the son of the superior … .
4. …a boat … a boat he shall … .
5. If a man hired a boat (and) he set it on a … journey for him … .
6. … the gift … he shall … .
7. If he gave his orchard a gardener to raise … (and) the gardener … to the owner of the garden … .
8. If a man gave bare ground to (another) man to set out an orchard (and the latter) did not complete setting out that bare ground as an orchard, he shall give to the man who set out the orchard the bare ground which he neglected, as part of his share.
9. If a man entered the orchard of (another) man (and) was seized there for stealing, he shall pay 10 shekels of silver.
10. If a man cut down a tree in the garden of (another) man, he shall pay ½ mina of silver.
11. If adjacent to the house of a man the bare ground of (another) man has been neglected and the owner of the house has said to the owner of the bare ground, “Because your ground has been neglected someone may break into my house, strengthen your house,” (and) this agreement has been confirmed by him, the owner of the bare ground shall restore to the owner of the house any of his property that is lost.
12. If a slave girl or slave of a man has fled into the heart of the city (and) it has been confirmed that he (or she) has dwelt in the house of (another) man for one month, he shall give slave for slave.
13. If he has no slave, he shall pay 15 shekels of silver.
14. If a man’s slave has compensated his slaveship to his master (and) it is confirmed (that he has compensated) his master twofold, that slave shall be freed.
15. If a miqtum is a grant of the king, he shall not be taken away.
16. If a miqtum went to a man of his own free will, that man shall not hold him; he (the miqtum) may go where he desires.
17. If a man without authorization bound (another) man to a matter to which he (the latter) had no knowledge, that man is not affirmed; he (the first man) shall bear the penalty in regard to the matter to which he has bound him.
18. If the master of an estate or the mistress of an estate has defaulted on the tax of the estate (and) a stranger has borne it, for three years he (the owner) may not be evicted. (Afterward) the man who bore the tax of the estate shall possess that estate, and the (former) owner of the estate shall not raise any claim.
19. If the master of an estate … .
20. If a man from the heir(s) seized … .
21. [If] … the house of the father … he married, the gift of the house of her father which was presented to her as her heir he shall take.
22. If the father (is) living, his daughter whether she be a nindingir, or lukur, or a hierodule shall dwell in the house like an heir.
23. If the daughter in the house of (her) living father … .
24. If the second wife whom he had married bore him children, the dowry which she brought from her father’s house belongs to her children; (but) the children of (his) first wife and the children of (his) second wife shall divide equally the property of their father.
25. If a man married a wife (and) she bore him children (and) those children are living, and a slave also bore children for her master (but) the father granted freedom to the slave and her children, the children of the slave shall not divide the estate with the children of the (former) master.
26. If his first wife dies (and) after her (death) he takes his slave as a wife, the children of his first wife are his heirs; the children which the slave bore for her master shall be like …, his house they shall … .
27. If a man’s wife has not borne him children (but) a harlot (from) the public square has borne children, he shall provide grain, oil and clothing for that harlot; the children which the harlot has borne him shall be his heirs, and as long as his wife lives the harlot shall not live in the house with his wife.
28. If a man turned his face away from his first wife…(but) she has not gone out of the house, his wife whom he married as his favorite is his second wife; he shall continue to support his first wife.
29. If a (prospective) son-in-law has entered the house of his father-in-law (and if) he made his betrothal (but) afterward they made him go out (of the house) and gave his wife to his companion, they shall present to him the betrothal gifts which he brought (and) that wife may not marry his companion.
30. If a young man married a harlot (from) the public square (and) the judges have ordered him not to visit her, (but) afterward he divorced his wife, money … .
31. [If] …. He has given him, after their father’s death the heirs shall divide the estate of their father, (but) the inheritance of the estate they shall not divide, they shall not “cook their father’s words in water.”
32. If the father while living has set aside a betrothal gift for his eldest son (and) in the presence of the father who was still alive he (the son) married a wife, after the father’s (death) the heir … .
33. If it has been confirmed that the … had not divided the estate, he shall pay 10 shekels of silver.
34. If a man rented an ox (and) injured the flesh at the nose-ring, he shall pay on-third of (its) price.
35. If a man rented an ox (and) damaged its eye, he shall pay one-half of its price.
36. If a man rented an ox (and) broke its horn, he shall pay one-fourth of (its) price.
37. If a man rented an ox (and) damaged its tail, he shall pay one-fourth of (its) price.
38. [If] … he shal pay.
(pages 337-339 “The Sumerians” by Samuel Noah Kramer, © 1963 by the University of Chicago)

It’s all very broken in parts, more’s the pity. But, you can catch a glimpse of what was important enough to make it on the law books during the reign of Lipit-Ishtar who ruled around 1934 BC to 1924 BC. These laws are understood to predate those of Hammurabi by about 200 years.