The Genesis of Liability in Ancient Law

@article{Parisi2000TheGO,
  title={The Genesis of Liability in Ancient Law},
  author={Francesco Parisi},
  journal={American Law and Economics Review},
  year={2000},
  volume={3},
  pages={82-124}
}
  • F. Parisi
  • Published 2000
  • Law
  • American Law and Economics Review
This paper considers the emergence and evolution of punitive and compensatory remedies in ancient law. I describe how ancient practices of retaliation gradually evolved, through four general phases, into rules requiring victim's compensation. I suggest that the Biblical lex talionis (eye for an eye ... life for a life) and similar rules that emerged in other ancient legal systems triggered an important change in the ancient law of wrongs, marking the end of a system of retaliatory justice and… 
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