Facilities Management Department

Building Codes Where Strict In 1772 BCE

§229-232 – 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 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). [1]

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[1]  The Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon  (1904) by Hammurabi, translated by Robert Francis Harper, Original work, c. 1772 BCE; translation published in 1904.