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Show THEN AND NOW How times have changed. Modern day regulations on housing construction including limitations, protections for the contractor as well as the contractee takes volumes to report and limitless time to interpret and sometimes years to decide through the courts. Recently we were presented with a copy of the first building code established by Hammurabi, King of Babylon, 2250 B. C. Terms of the code may seem a little drastic, but certainly they are to the point. We publish that original code herewith for you to consider its effectiveness and for your own comparison compari-son to modern times just some 4217 years ago. "If a builder build a house for a man and complete it (that man), shall give him two shekels of silver per sar (approx. 12 sq. ft.) of house as his wage. "If a builder build a house for a man and do not make its construction firm, and the house which he has built collapse and cause the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death. "If it cause the death of a son of the owner of the house, they shall put to death a son of that builder. "If it cause the death of a slave of the owner of the house, he shall give to the owner of the house a slave of equal value. "If it destroy property, he shall restore whatever it destroyed, and because he did not make the house which he built firm and it collapsed, he shall rebuild the house which collapsed from his own property (i. e., at his own expense.) "If a builder build a house for a man and do not make its construction meet the requirements and a wall fall in, that builder shall strengthen that wall at his own expense." |