Oklahoma Social Studies AWH.C.2.5
The Standard
Assess the influence and legacy of Hammurabi, including the basic principles of justice associated with Hammurabi’s Code.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026)
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how Hammurabi used written laws to present himself as a ruler who upheld order in Babylon. They compare penalties for the same harm and judge whether those penalties treated people fairly. They explain why the code remains a useful record of early law.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given two eye-injury laws, a student identifies how the penalty changes with the injured person's social rank. They explain how written penalties supported Hammurabi's authority while treating people unequally.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think 'eye for an eye' applied to everyone equally. They may assume people today use Hammurabi's laws or that every ancient case was decided exactly as the inscription says.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: In one law, an attacker loses an eye for injuring a high-status man. In another, the attacker pays silver for injuring a lower-status man. What do these penalties show about justice under Hammurabi, and why might he display the laws?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups printed eye-injury laws and have them sort the penalties by the injured person's social rank on a paper chart.
Ask students to write: How could written penalties make rulings more predictable while still treating people unequally?
Play case-match: read three eye-injury cases, then have pairs find each penalty in translated laws 196, 198, and 199.
Compare a school handbook's theft rule with translated law 8 on stolen livestock; have students mark whether the penalty changes by owner.
Free download
Printable AWH.C.2.5 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to AWH.C.2.5, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetKeep exploring
Related Standards
- MWH.C.1.1.D
Evaluate the contributions of the Roman civilization to law and government by describing the Roman Republic’s development of the principle of separation of powe...
- MWH.C.1.1.F
Examine the influence of Christian moral and legal traditions on the development of Western legal systems.
- MWH.C.1.1.B
Describe ancient Mesopotamia’s Code of Hammurabi as one of the earliest legal codes.
- USG.C.6.1
Evaluate the importance of the rule of law as the principle that all citizens and institutions are to be held accountable to the same laws and consequences.
Turn this exact standard into a lesson
Grade, subject, topic, and the complete standard are prefilled. Create one free, no account needed.
Also for this standard:Make a WorksheetMake a QuizMake a Sub Lesson