Fault, Responsibility, and Administrative Law in Late Babylonian Legal Texts / / F. Rachel Magdalene, Cornelia Wunsch, Bruce Wells.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package 2019
• VerfasserIn: Magdalene, F. Rachel,; Wells, Bruce,; Wunsch, Cornelia,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2021]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Mesopotamian Civilizations ; 23
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (744 p.) :; 51 illustrations

This book presents a reassessment of the governmental systems of the Late Babylonian period-specifically those of the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian empires-and provides evidence demonstrating that these are among the first to have developed an early form of administrative law.The present study revolves around a particular expression that, in its most common form, reads ḫīṭu ša šarri išaddad and can be translated as "he will be guilty (of an offense) against the king." The authors analyze ninety-six documents, thirty-two of which have not been previously published, discussing each text in detail, including the syntax of this clause and its legal consequences, which involve the delegation of responsibility in an administrative context. Placing these documents in their historical and institutional contexts, and drawing from the theories of Max Weber and S. N. Eisenstadt, the authors aim to show that the administrative bureaucracy underlying these documents was a more complex, systematized, and rational system than has previously been recognized.Accompanied by extensive indexes, as well as transcriptions and translations of each text analyzed here, this book breaks new ground in the study of ancient legal systems.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- List of Texts -- List of Tables -- List of Abbreviations -- Part I: Analysis -- Chapter One. Introduction -- Chapter Two. The ḫīṭu-Clause and Its Interpretation -- Chapter Three. The ḫīṭu-Documents and the Duties behind Them -- Chapter Four. The ḫīṭu-Documents from Non-Judicial Contexts -- Chapter Five. The ḫīṭu-Documents from Judicial Contexts -- Chapter Six. On History and Theory: Administrative Law and Bureaucracy in Ancient Times -- Chapter Seven. Quasi-Bureaucracy and Administrative Law in the Late Babylonian Period -- Part II: Texts -- Text Editions with Copies -- Text Editions without Copies -- Abstracts of Texts in Forthcoming Publications -- Bibliography -- Indexes -- Documents -- Akkadian Words -- Personal Names in Part II -- Geographic Names in Part II -- Divine Names in Part II -- Authors -- Subjects