Legal code in the context of "Codification (law)"

Ur-Nammu (or Ur-Namma, Ur-Engur, Ur-Gur, Sumerian: 𒌨𒀭𒇉; died c. 2094 BC) founded the Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur, in southern Mesopotamia, following several centuries of Akkadian and Gutian rule. Though he built many temples and canals his main achievement was building the core of the Ur III Empire through military conquest. Ur-Nammu is chiefly remembered today for his legal code, the Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest known surviving example in the world. He also initiated the construction of the Ziggurat of Ur. He held the titles of "King of Ur" and "King of Sumer and Akkad". His personal goddess was Ninsuna.

The Mishneh Torah (Hebrew: מִשְׁנֵה תוֹרָה, lit. 'repetition of the Torah'), also known as Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka (ספר יד החזקה, 'book of the strong hand'), is a code of Rabbinic Jewish religious law (halakha) authored by Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon/Rambam). The Mishneh Torah was compiled between 1170 and 1180 CE (4930 and 4940 AM), while Maimonides was living in Egypt, and is regarded as Maimonides' magnum opus. Accordingly, later sources simply refer to the work as "Maimon", "Maimonides", or "RaMBaM", although Maimonides composed other works.

Mishneh Torah consists of fourteen books, subdivided into sections, chapters, and paragraphs. It is the only medieval-era work that details all of Jewish observance, including those laws that are only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem is in existence, and remains an important work in Judaism.

Chinese law is one of the oldest legal traditions in the world. The core of modern Chinese law is based on Germanic-style civil law, socialist law, and traditional Chinese approaches. For most of the history of China, its legal system has been based on the Confucian philosophy of social control through moral education, as well as the Legalist emphasis on codified law and criminal sanction. Following the Xinhai Revolution, the Republic of China adopted a largely Western-style legal code in the civil law tradition (specifically German and Swiss based). The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 brought with it a more Soviet-influenced system of socialist law. However, earlier traditions from Chinese history have retained their influence.

The Russkaya Pravda (sometimes translated as Rus' Justice, Rus' Truth, or Russian Justice) was the legal code of Kievan Rus' and its principalities during the period of feudal fragmentation. It was written at the beginning of the 12th century and remade during many centuries. The basis of the Russkaya Pravda, the Pravda of Yaroslav, was written at the beginning of the 11th century. The Russkaya Pravda was a main source of the law of Kievan Rus'.

In spite of great influence of Byzantine legislation on the contemporary world, and in spite of great cultural and commercial ties between Byzantium and Kievan Rus', the Russkaya Pravda bore no similarity whatsoever to the law of the Byzantine Empire. The absence of capital and corporal punishment rather reflects Norse jurisprudence.

The Carta de Logu was a legal code of the Judicate of Arborea, written in the Sardinian language and promulgated by the juighissa Eleanor of Arborea in 1392. It was in force in Sardinia until it was superseded by the code of King Charles Felix in April 1827.

The Carta was a work of great importance in Sardinian history and in European Juridic history as a whole. It was an organic, coherent, and systematic work of legislation encompassing the civil and penal law. The history of the drafting of the Carta is unknown, but the Carta itself provides an excellent glimpse into the ethnological and linguistic situation of late medieval Sardinia.

The Great Qing Legal Code (or Great Ching Legal Code), also known as the Qing Code (Ching Code) or, in Hong Kong law, as the Ta Tsing Leu Lee (大清律例), was the legal code of the Qing empire (1644–1912). The code was based on the Ming legal code, the Great Ming Legal Code (zh), which was kept largely intact. Compared to the Ming Code, which had no more than several hundred statutes and sub-statutes, the Qing Code contained 1,907 statutes across over 30 revisions between 1644 and 1912. One of the earliest of these revisions was in 1660, completed by the Qing official Wei Zhouzuo and the noble Bahana.

The Qing Code was the last legal code of Imperial China. By the end of the Qing dynasty, it had been the only legal code enforced in China for nearly 270 years. Even with the fall of the imperial Qing in 1912, the Confucian philosophy of social control enshrined in the Qing Code remained influential in the subsequent German law-based legal system of the Republic of China, and later, the Soviet-based system of the People's Republic of China. Part of the Qing Code was also used in British Hong Kong until 1971.

The legal code was a common feature of the legal systems of the ancient Middle East. Many of them are examples of cuneiform law. The oldest evidence of a code of law was found at Ebla, in modern Syria (c. 2400 BC). The Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100–2050 BC), then the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1760 BC), are amongst the earliest originating in the Fertile Crescent. In the Roman empire, a number of codifications were developed, such as the Twelve Tables of Roman law (first compiled in 450 BC) and the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian, also known as the Justinian Code (429–534 AD). In India, the Edicts of Ashoka (269–236 BC) were followed by the Law of Manu (200 BC). In ancient China, the first comprehensive criminal code was the Tang Code, created in 624 AD in the Tang Dynasty.

The following is a list of ancient legal codes in chronological order: