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"If a man knocks out the eye of another man, he shall weigh out 1/2 a mina of silver"

Sumeria (modern Iraq) (ca. 2000 B.C.)
Ur-Nammu (ca. 2112-2095 B.C.) was a Sumerian king who governed the land of Ur. He was a builder of ziggurats, and founded the 3rd dynasty of Ur. Ur-Nammu promulgated a code, perhaps the oldest written legal code which has survived the ravages of time, and which predates Hammurabi’s Code by about three hundred years. Composed of 57 laws, not all of which have been deciphered, Ur-Nammu’s code addresses taxes, ceremonial law, courtroom procedures, and penalties. The Code of Ur-Nammu as it has survived is written in primitive cuneiform on a clay tablet.

"The law is the standard of God’s work. If it is scales, it tilts not; If a balance, it is not partial."

Egypt (Middle Kingdom) (ca. 2040 – 1674 B.C.)
There is little historical evidence of Egyptian law that has been unearthed preserved in modern times. One of the more remarkable survivals is the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant. It is a story about Khunanup, a wronged peasant, and his pleas for justice (in Egyptian, Ma’at) to Rensi, the High Steward of Ninsu and representative of King Nebkaure. The exemplar text is in hieratic, not hieroglyphs.

"To cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, to enlighten the land and to further the welfare of the people. . . . I established Law."

Babylonia (ca. 1790-1750 B.C.)
Roughly five centuries before Moses received the Commandments, King Hammurabi of Babylonia (modern day Iraq)—inspired he claimed by the Babylonian gods Anu and Bel—promulgated his famous laws. Inscribed in cuneiform text on a stele of black diorite almost 8 feet high are 282 verdicts covering a wide breadth of Babylonian life. Found in 1901, it currently resides at the Louvre in Paris, France.

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s."

Israel (ca. 13th/12th century B.C.)
According to Russell Kirk, our modern moral order “runs back to the burning bush at Sinai.” It was at Mt. Sinai that Moses received the Ten Commandments or Decalogue straight from the finger of God, as it were. The reception of this law was a defining event for the ancient Hebrews, and remains a defining event for all mankind. For that reason, Moses is considered one of the world’s great lawgivers. At the heart of the Ten Commandments is what Voegelin describes a “leap in being,” that is the “discovery of transcendent being as the source of order in man and society.” At the founding of the American Republic this wine—though old in vintage—was poured into the new wineskins of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Even today, the principles of the Decalogue are venerated by Jews, Christians, Muslims, and men and women of good will.

"Law is the stay of the whole world; in society people approach the most ardent follower of the Law. The Law removes sin; Everything rests on the Law. So declare the Law to be most excellent."

India (ca. 600-100 B.C.)
The Dharmasutras (literally Sanskrit for “Legal aphorisms”), along with the Vedas and Dharmasastras, represent one of the traditional sources for Hindu law. The most important Dharmasutras are those of Apastamba (ca. 450-350 B.C.), Gautama (ca. 600-400 B.C.), Baudhayana (ca. 500-200 B.C) and Vasistha (300-100 B.C.). The photograph is from the Dharmasutras, but the quotation is taken from the Vedas.

"The needs of Babylon and all its cities I gladly attended to . . . and the shameful yoke was removed from them. . . . I permitted all to dwell in peace."

Babylon (modern Iran) (539-520 B.C.)
This clay cylinder inscribed in cuneiform is an account of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, and his conquest of Babylon in 539 B.C. Attributing his victory to the Babylonian god Marduk, Cyrus restored freedom of worship, and allowed the return of peoples to their homeland. Among the recipients of this favor were the Jews, who were allowed to return to Palestine from where they had been deported by Nebuchadnezzar II. The event is recorded in Ezra 1:1-8. The Cyrus Cylinder is often said to be the “first charter of human rights.”

“If anyone summons a man before the magistrate, he must go. If the man summoned does not go, let the one summoning him call the bystanders to witness and then take him by force.”

Rome (ca. 450 B.C.)
Rome was known for its military might, and its law; but its law’s beginnings were as humble as a hovel. Rome’s first written laws were spurred by a revolt of the plebeians against the patricians in 462 B.C. Led by Gaius Terentilius Harsa, the plebeians argued that the Romans ought to have their laws written down like the Greeks. In resolution of the rebellion, a commission is said to have been appointed, and the result was a table of Twelve Laws, the famous Lex Duodecim Tabulae. They were written on bronze, and planted in the Roman Forum, attached to the Rostra before the Curia. Romans memorized them; even their children chanted them, as Cicero relates. We know these laws only by excerpts, as the original tablets were destroyed by marauding Gauls, who sacked Rome in 390 B.C.

"Whatever is written for the judge to decide according to witnesses or by oath of denial, he shall decide as is written . . . ."

Crete (ca. 450 B.C.)
The Code of Gortyn, discovered in the 19th century, is written on stone. It is the largest single legal document of Greek law in existence. It is written boustrephedon (as the ox plows, right to left, then left to right, etc.) This was a typical way for the Greeks to promulgate their laws. For the Greek city-state (polis), the law (nomos) was unifying and protected them from disorder. As the philosopher Heraclitus said, “the people must fight for the law as for their city wall.”

"Law is good, but what constitutes Law? Little evil, much good, kindness, generosity, truthfulness and purity."

India (ca. 304-232 B.C.)
By killing his brothers, Ashoka became head of the Mauryan empire, and led a series of bloody wars to expand his territory, including the battle for the republic of Kalinga. The bloodbath caused by the battle of Kalinga deeply upset Ashoka, and he renounced war and embraced the teachings of Buddhism. After his conversion, the Emperor Ashoka promulgated laws inspired by Buddhism throughout his empire by raising pillars with his edicts and by carving them on stone. He also instituted significant social reforms, and built hospitals, poor houses, monasteries, and veterinary hospitals.

“Justice is a steady and enduring will to render unto every one his right. The basic principles of right are: to live honorably, not to harm any other person, to render to each his own.”

Roman Empire (ca. 530 A.D.)
The great Christian Roman emperor Justinian, whom St. Thomas Aquinas called “the Jurist,” appointed the learned lawyer Tribonian to head the commission which was directed to compile the laws of Rome. The commission took the best from the pagan Roman heritage, but cleansed it, as it were, with the waters of the Gospel, Christianizing the law in the process. “In the hands of Justinian and Tribonian,” Professor Honoré concluded, the Stoic principles underlying much of Roman law were “given a more radical emphasis which is traceable to the influence of Christianity.” This great effort is called Justinian's Digest or Pandects. The Digest together with Justinian's Institutions and Codex are called the Corpus Juris Civilis. When a manuscript of the Digest was re-discovered in the city-state of Pisa, it spawned first the birth of law schools and civil law in a historical process called the Reception. Even the critical Gibbon called the Digest a “fair and everlasting monument.”

"If an ear be struck off, let bot be made with twelve shillings. If the mouth or an eye be injured, let bot be made with twelve shillings. For the smallest disfigurement of the face, three shillings; and for the greater, six shillings. If a foot be cut off, let fifty shillings be paid."

Anglo-Saxon England (ca. 604 A.D.)
Converted through the efforts of his wife, Bertha, and the persuasion of St. Augustine of Canterbury from his pagan gods, King Aethelbert began a reform of his people based upon his new-found Christian faith. Part of his reform included the promulgation of laws roughly based on the Roman model. These "Ninety Dooms" issued by King Aethelbert constituted the first written laws of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. Among other things, some of the dooms or laws provide for payment of money (wergeld) for compensation (bot) for injury to specific parts of the body. "English law begins to speak," Maitland observed, "just when Roman law has spoken what will, in a certain sense, be its final words." King Aethelbert was later canonized as a saint.

“Good faith is the foundation of right.”

(Kempo Juschichijo)
Japan (604 A.D.)
Representing the first written promulgation of law in Japan, The Seventeen Article Constitution was hand-written by Prince Shōtoku Taishi (ca. 574-622 A.D.). Though no longer part of Japan’s organic law, it is as important a symbol to that country as the Magna Charta is to England. Prince Shōtoku had a tremendous intellect, and was a devout Buddhist. The Constitution he authored is a combination of Buddhist and Confucian principles, and stresses the harmonious social order arising out of the right administration of law. Because of his greatness in the law, he is referred to as Toyotomimi, which means “Great King of the Law.” Shōtoku is considered a Bodhisattva, a Buddhist saint, a manifestation of compassionate and enlightened rule. The exemplar is taken from the ancient Japanese chronicle, the Nihongi or Nihonshoki, which records Shōtoku’s regency. The quote is from Article IX of Shōtoku’s Constitution.

“The ten abominations [include] plotting rebellion . . . plotting great sedition . . . plotting treason . . . contumacy . . . depravity . . . irreverence . . . lack of filial piety . . . discord . . . unrighteousness . . . [and] incest . . . .”

China (ca. 640 A.D.)
The T’ang dynasty (619-906 A.D.) of China ranks as an important era in Chinese history. In order to control the expanding Chinese empire, its rulers passed a series of codes and statutes. Among the most important of these efforts was that of T’ai-tsung (627-649), who passed a comprehensive criminal code known as Ku T’ang lü shu-yi, or the T’ang Code. The T’ang Code (lü) was only part of a comprehensive effort at legal and administrative reform which also involved statutes (ling), regulations (ko), and ordinances (shih). These latter have not survived but in scraps. The T’ang Code is composed of two parts. The first section deals with general principles of criminal law, and the second deals with specific crimes and their punishments. The T’ang Code had a large effect on the criminal law of imperial China, being the basis of the criminal law during the following Sung, Yüan, Ming, and Ch’ing dynasties. It also had great effect upon other East Asian countries. As Professor Wallace Johnson has put it in his study of the T’ang Code: “[F]or some 1,300 years The T’ang Code has played the dominant role in East Asian law, a period of time rivaled only by the Corpus Juris Civilis in Western Europe.”

“It shall not be lawful to a believer who holds by what is in this document and believes in God and the last day to help an evil-doer or to shelter him.”

(Dustur-al-Madinah or Kitāb)
Medina, Arabia (ca. 622 A.D.)
After fleeing from Mecca to Medina in the event known as the Hegira (Hijra), the Prophet Muhammad established himself at Medina, and eventually formed a government between the Arab followers of Islam and the other residents of Medina, many of them Jews. When Muhammad obtained the reins of power, he entered into an accord with the resident Jewish tribes in a document known as the Constitution of Medina. In a sense the document was both an Islamic declaration of independence and a constitution, one which the Islamic scholar Muhammad Hamidullah has claimed to be the first written constitution in the world. It provided the model of the legal relations between Muslim governments and Christians and Jews, the people of the book (Ahl al-Kitāb).

“O ye who believe! Be ye staunch in justice . . . even though it be against yourselves or your parents or your kindred, whether the case be of a rich man or a poor man, for Allah is nearer to both than ye are.”

Arabia (ca. 650 A.D.)
The Qur’an or Koran is the fundamental religious text of Islam. Literally, Qur’an means “the recitation,” and it is regarded as Allah’s revelation to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. The Qur’an consists of 114 surah (chapters), each of which is given an Arabic name. The original text is in classical Arabic, though it has been translated in many languages. The Qur’an (along with the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad—the Sunna) is the basis of Muslim Law, i.e., the Shari’a. To these two sources are added ijma (doctrinal concensus) and qyas (analogical reasoning).

“Natural law absolutely prevails in dignity over customs and constitutions. Whatever has been recognized by usage, or laid down in writing, if it contradicts natural law, must be considered null and void.”

Bologna, Italy (ca. 1140 A.D.)
Very little is known about Gratian (fl. 1140 A.D.) except for his work, which is one of the great contributions to the law. He was probably a monk in Italy, perhaps in the convent of San Felice in Bologna. Around the middle of the 12th century, this Gratian wrote or compiled a collection of canons (church laws) entitled Concordia discordantium canonum (Concord of Discordant Canons), popularly referred to as the Decretum or Decretals. Gratian patterned his work on the recently discovered Digest of Justinian. In addition to the legal texts which he compiled, Gratian added his commentary, the dicta Gratiani, thus further unifying the work. Gratian’s work was accepted as the basic resource for canon law for many centuries, and its influence even now can be seen in the current canon law of the Catholic Church.

"No Freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful Judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land."

England (1215 A.D.)
Latin for “Great Charter,” the Magna Carta is commonly credited for ushering the notion of a constitutional government wherein the sovereign was constrained by law. Forced upon King John at the meadow of Runnymede by English nobles who felt the King was usurping their traditional rights, its effect on Anglo-American law cannot be overstated. Its voice still speaks to us in the due process clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights (Fifth Amendment). Justice Edward Coke stated that the “Magna Carta is such a fellow, that he will have no sovereign.” It is essential to the concept of the Rule of Law that all those in power be subject to law.

“The law-maker should love God and keep Him before his eyes when he makes the laws, in order that they may be just and perfect. He should moreover love justice and the common benefit of all. He should be learned, in order to know how to distinguish right from wrong, and he should not be ashamed to change and amend his laws, whenever he thinks or a reason given him, that he should do so . . . .”

Spain (1256-1265 A.D.)
The Siete Partidas (Seven Parts) is commonly regarded as the most significant law code of the Middle Ages. The great king of Castile and Leon, Alfonso X (1221-1284), known as “el Sabio,” or the Wise, commissioned this compilation and synthesis of existing of laws. The Siete Partidas played an important role not only in Spain and in Latin America, but indirectly even some of the States in the United States. It is, for example, the original source for the community property laws in the State of Texas. Because of its broad and synthetic treatment of the law, it has been called a summa de derecho (the “summation of right”). Each of the seven parts begins with a letter of the name of King Alfonso:
Aseruicio de Dios . . .
La ffe cathólica . . .
Fizo Nuestro Sennor Dios . . .
Onras sennaladas . . .
Nascen entre los ommes . . .
Sesudamente dixeron . . . and
Olvidança et atreuimiento . . . .

"Law is a certain ordination of reason for the common good from the legitimate authority and promulgated."

(Summa Theologiae I-II, qq. 90-97)
Italy (1267-73 A.D.)
Written by St. Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274), a Dominican friar, the so-called “Treatise on Law” is part of this theologian’s magnum opus, the Summa Theologiae, a masterly synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and the Christian Revelation. St. Thomas studied under the scholastic philosopher Albert the Great. Although not strictly speaking a legal instrument, St. Thomas’s Treatise on Law is a succinct and classic statement of the philosophy of natural law, and the source, the limits, and end of human law. Aquinas’ philosophy of natural law deeply influenced the English cleric Richard Hooker, who, in turn, influenced John Locke. Jefferson was steeped in the works of Locke. There is, therefore, a little bit of St. Thomas in our Declaration of Independence.

“The King . . . ought to be subject to God and law, since law makes the King. Therefore let the King render to the law what the law has rendered to the King, namely, dominion and power for there is no King where will rules, and not law.”

England (ca. 1268 A.D.)
Henry de Bracton’s (d. 1268 A.D.) famous treatise on English law De legibus et consuetudinis Angliae (“On the Laws and Customs of England”) represents a medieval legal tour de force. In an effort to describe as well as guide and standardize English law and legal process, Bracton’s treatise combines English law and customs with Roman law as found in the Institutes and Digest of Justinian and in his various medieval commentators such as Azo, Tancred, and Raymond de Peñafort. Bracton is also known for his Note-Book, a compilation of over 2,000 medieval judicial opinions.

“[A] writ shall be framed by the consent of the learned in the law; to the end that the court from henceforth shall no longer fails those who seek justice.”

England (1285 A.D.)
Often called the “English Justinian,” Edward I reigned as King of England between 1272 and 1307 A.D. His reign represents an important development in English law. Edward I wielded the law as an instrument of his governmental policy, as well as he wielded his sword. Some of his famous statutes (written in Legal French) include the Statutes of Westminster, and the Statutes of Winchester, Gloucester, and Quia Emptores. He has been described as the “lawyer-king,” and Sir Matthew Hale observed in his History of the Common Law that before Edward I the law was “rude,” and after Edward I the law was “polished.” Edward I also expanded Parliament by summoning persons other than nobles, thus planting the seed of what eventually would become the House of Commons, the model for our House of Representatives. The quote is taken from chapter 24 of the Second Statute of Westminster.

“Every virtue flows from justice. Whatever is done by an unjust person is an evil act.”

Ottoman Empire (Turkey) (mid 1500s A.D.)
Known to the West as “the Magnificent,” and to the Turks as “the Lawgiver” (Kanuni), Süleyman I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its grandeur and power, was one of history’s great lawgivers. Süleyman strove both to have just laws and administer them justly. He was a man of many talents: a poet, a conqueror, a goldsmith, and Sultan. His great work was to codify the various laws (kanuns) of his predecessors into a code called Kanun-i ‘Osmani, assuring in the process that the Sultan-made law conformed to the law of Islam (şeriat or shari’a). The exemplar text is a combination of a portion of one of Süleyman’s firmans, or imperial decrees, and his official signature or tuğra. The quote is taken from one of Süleyman’s directives.

“Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.”

England (1756-69 A.D.)
Published in four volumes by William Blackstone (1723-80), a barrister of the Middle Temple, and first Vinerian professor of common law at Oxford, the Commentaries is a full synopsis of the common law. The influence of Blackstone’s Commentaries on the formation of this nation’s institutions (e.g., The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution) and the common law cannot be underestimated. There were no law schools in America at the time of the revolution, and only slowly were they founded. Therefore, the founding fathers and the next generation of American leaders who were lawyers—and many were—assiduously studied their copy of the Commentaries. For that reason, as Boorstin in his study of the Commentaries put it, the work became the “bible of American legal institutions.”

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

U.S.A. (July 4, 1776 A.D.)
Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence have resounded in the hearts of Americans and others since first penned in his inimitable style. In his Letter to his fellow Virginian, Richard Henry Lee, Jefferson stated the best clue of where he turned for this document’s principles: "All [its] authority," wrote Jefferson, "rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters, printed essays or the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc." The Declaration is, as G. K. Chesterton put it, "perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature."

“Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

U.S.A. (1787 A.D.)
The Northwest Ordinance, enacted by Congress in 1787, was probably the most significant piece of legislation of the federal government operating under the Articles of Confederation before they were replaced by the U.S. Constitution in 1789. The Ordinance provides the requirements by which new states would be formed out of land contained in the Northwest Territory. The Ordinance contains an important statement of rights, including the right to religious freedom, trial by jury, and habeas corpus.

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

U.S.A. (1789 A.D.)
The U.S. Constitution is the foundational instrument of our government. Intended to replace the Articles of Confederation which by general consent were inadequate, the U.S. Constitution was the result of many compromises reached by the representatives at the Philadelphia Convention. The Constitution was effective March 4, 1789, when nine of the thirteen states that were part of the United States ratified it. It establishes the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of the United States, and, in an effort to prevent power from centralizing in any one branch, provides for numerous checks and balances. The U.S. Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times.

"In suits at common law . . . the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."

U.S.A. (1791 A.D.)
The Bill of Rights was not originally part of the United States Constitution. It is the name given to the first ten amendments of that document which became effective on December 15, 1791. The gist of the Bill of Rights is to limit the federal government’s power, and protect the rights of the people or the separate States. The Bill of Rights restrict Congress from limiting what were viewed as important freedoms, among them: speech, the press, assembly, religious worship, right to bear arms, and not being subject to unreasonable searches and seizures or cruel and unusual punishment. The need for a Bill of Rights was strongly debated by our founding fathers. The Bill of Rights did not originally apply to restrict the separate states. But in what may be called a legal irony, the Bill of Rights has been the basis of the expansion of federal power. This is a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Gitlow v. New York, where the Court ruled that the 14th Amendment adopted in 1868 made some of the Bill of Rights’ provisions applicable to the several states (the “reverse incorporation doctrine”).

"The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men.”

U.S.A. (1803 A.D.)
Arising as a result of some last-minute commissions by the outgoing Federalist President John Adams (the so-called “Midnight Judges”) which the incoming Republican President Thomas Jefferson refused to recognize, the case of Marbury v. Madison, written by Chief Justice John Marshall, represents a foundational case in the law of the United States. It established the power of judicial review by the United States Supreme Court to determine whether acts of Congress were consistent with the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court held that, as one of the co-equal branches of government, it had the power to determine whether the other branches were acting in accordance with the Constitution, and upon finding that they exceeded such power, holding such acts void.

“Private agreements must not contravene the laws which concern public order and good morals.”

France (1804 A.D.)
Reflecting upon his many achievements while on the islet of St. Helena, Napoleon believed his Civil Code to be his most significant achievement. The Civil Code, commonly called the Napoleonic Code, was a comprehensive overhaul of French civil law. The Code was promulgated on March 21, 1804. In its laws, the Code steered between the Charybdis of conservatism and the Scylla of liberalism. Not only did the Civil Code serve France, it influenced many other nations’ codes of law, and the law of the State of Louisiana. The exemplar text is taken from the act adopting the Civil Code.

“There shall be firm and universal peace between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, and between their respective countries, territories, cities, towns, and people, without exception of places or persons.”

Mexico (1848 A.D.)
In November 1835, the northern part of the state of Coahuila-Tejas rebelled against Mexico, then ruled by Santa Anna. By 1836, the residents of “Texas” declared independence and won independence form Mexico, claiming the land up to the Rio Grande. In 1845, the U.S. Congress voted to annex the Republic of Texas. War was later declared with Mexico in 1846, and Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott easily overcame Mexican resistance. On February 2, 1848, the a peace treaty was signed in the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty called for the cession of a significant part of its northern territory, including present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. The Treaty also addressed the border between Mexico and Texas, placing it at the Rio Grande.

“No State shall . . . . deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

U.S.A. (1869 A.D.)
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, is one of the post-bellum amendments. It was ratified on July 9, 1869. The 14th Amendment overturns the Supreme Court’s holding in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford case. In the Dred Scott case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that, under the Constitution, even free blacks could not be citizens of the United States. The case also held that excluding slavery from any U.S. territory (which was the so-called “Missouri Compromise”) was an unconstitutional deprivation of property rights without due process, and was prohibited by the Fifth Amendment.

“Humbly invoking the blessings of Almighty God, the people of the State of Texas, do ordain and establish this Constitution.”

Texas (1876 A.D.)
The Texas Constitution is the foundation of our State’s government. It is the fundamental law under which our State branches of government—the executive, the legislative, and the judicial—operate. The 1876 Constitution was adopted on February 15, 1876, and our State still operates under its provisions, although it has been amended over 400 times. Various efforts at replacing the State constitution with a new one have failed.

“The High Contracting Parties in order. . . to achieve international peace and security . . . by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war . . . by the maintenance of justice . . .agree to this Covenant of the League of Nations.”

Versailles, France (1919 A.D.)
The pet of President Woodrow Wilson and formed after the carnage of World War I, the League of Nations sought to radically change the mechanisms of international relations. One of the League’s major aims was to avoid war, and end in which it clearly failed with the coming of World War II. It was replaced by the United Nations, into which many of its institutions were absorbed. Although it was originally signed by 44 nations, because of isolationist sentiment in Congress, the United States never joined the League. Later, other countries pulled out of the League. Because of his promotion of the league, Woodrow Wilson obtained a Noble Peace Prize. The League met in Geneva, Switzerland.

“We the peoples of the United Nations, determined . . . reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small . . . . “

U.S.A. (1946 A.D.)
Considered the constitution of the United Nations, the U.N. Charter was signed and later ratified by the requisite members on October 4, 1945. The Charter is a treaty between its members, and thus all members are bound by it. It replaced the League of Nations, which was founded in 1919.

“The fact that a person acted pursuant to the order of his government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.”

United Nations (1950 A.D.)
Under General Assembly resolution 177(II)(a), the International Law Commission of the United Nations was directed to “formulate the principles of international law recognized in the Charter of the Nürnberg Tribunal and in the judgment of the Tribunal”. Principle 4 of the Nürnberg Principles is based upon section 8 of the Nürnberg Tribunal Charter dated August 8, 1945. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson acted as special prosecutor on behalf of the United States in the trials. He stated in the beginning of his opening statement: “That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.” Referencing Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The Old Issue,” Jackson closed: “Civilization asks whether law is so laggard as to be utterly helpless to deal with crimes of this magnitude by criminals of this order . . . . It does expect that your juridical action will put the forces of international law, its precepts, its prohibitions and, most of all, its sanctions, on the side of peace, so that men and women of good will, in all countries, may have ‘leave to live by no man's leave, underneath the law.’” The Nürnberg principles remind us of what a rightly formed conscience urges: sometimes the law is morally wrong, and, on what we always hope are very rare occasions, it cannot be obeyed without fault.