Tracing the Earliest Recorded Concepts of International Law: The Ancient Near East (2500-330 BCE)

281 Pages·2012·2.665 MB·English

by  Amnon Altman

Tracing the Earliest Recorded Concepts of
International Law
Legal History Library

VOLUME 8
Studies in the History of International Law
Series Editor
Randall Lesaffer
Tilburg University, Catholic University of Leuven
Editorial Board
Peter Haggenmacher, Institut de Hautes Études Internationales Genève
Emmannuelle Jouannet, Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne
Lauri Mälksoo, University of Tartu
Amanda Perreau-Saussine, University of Cambridge
Masaharu Yanagihara, Kyushu University
VOLUME 4
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/lhl
Tracing the Earliest Recorded
Concepts of International Law
The Ancient Near East (2500–330 bce)
By
Amnon Altman
LEIdEN • bOSTON
2012
Cover illustration: The Assyrian king Shalmaneser III shaking hand with a babylonian king, very
likely Marduk-zakir-shumi, beneath a canopy. The picture is taken by permission from M.E.L.
Mallowan, Nimrud and its Remains (1966), Vol. 2, p. 447, fig. 371d. Photograph by courtesy of the
british Institute for the Study of Iraq.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Altman, Amnon, 1935–
Tracing the earliest recorded concepts of international law : the ancient Near East (2500–330 bCE) /
by Amnon Altman.
  p. cm.—(Legal history library ; 8) (Studies in the history of international law)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISbN 978-90-04-22252-6 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. International law—History. 2. Law—Middle East—History. 3. Law, Ancient. I. Title.
KZ1242.A44 2012
341.0935—dc23
2012007324
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covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the
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ISSN 1874-1793
ISbN 978 90 04 22252 6 (hardback)
ISbN 978 90 04 22253 3 (e-book)
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Dedicated to the memory of
Prof. Pinḥas Artzi
(23.5.1923—8.4.2007)

CONTENTS
General Editor’s Preface ................................................................................ ix
Acknowledgements  ........................................................................................ xiii
Preface  ................................................................................................................ xv
Abbreviations and Symbols  ......................................................................... xvii
Introduction  ..................................................................................................... xxi
1. The Early dynastic Period in Southern Mesopotamia
(2900–2350 bce)  ......................................................................................... 1
1. The geo-political scene, the actors and the sources  ................ 1
2. War  .......................................................................................................... 7
3. Treaties  .................................................................................................. 20
2. The Old Akkadian and Ur III Periods in Mesopotamia
(2350–2004 bce)  ......................................................................................... 23
I. The Old Akkadian Period  ................................................................. 23
1. The expanded geographic scene and its political regime  ...... 23
2. War  .......................................................................................................... 26
3. Treaties  .................................................................................................. 34
II. The Ur III Period  ................................................................................. 38
1. Ur III political scene  .......................................................................... 38
2. War  .......................................................................................................... 39
3. dynastic marriage alliances ............................................................. 46
4. The legal obligation of gratitude .................................................... 47
3. The Near East in the Old babylonian Period (2003–1595 bce)  ... 49
1. The political and cultural scene  ..................................................... 49
2. War  .......................................................................................................... 51
3. Treaties  .................................................................................................. 67
4. Commercial treaties and the status of traveling
merchants  ............................................................................................. 75
5. Managing conflicts  ............................................................................. 78
6. Extradition and asylum  .................................................................... 81
7. diplomatic law  .................................................................................... 83
viii contents
4. The Near East in the Late bronze Age (1600–1200 bce) ................ 88
 1. The political scene  .............................................................................. 88
2. War  ........................................................................................................... 89
3. Treaties  ................................................................................................... 111
4. dynastic marriage alliances  ............................................................. 142
5. Managing conflicts and state responsibility  ................................ 145
6. Refugees and Extradition  .................................................................. 152
7. diplomatic law  ..................................................................................... 163
5. The Near East 1200–330 bce  .................................................................. 166
1. The political scene  .............................................................................. 166
2. War  ........................................................................................................... 168
3. Treaties  ................................................................................................... 190
4. Rules pertaining to maritime traffic  .............................................. 199
5. Arbitration and Mediation  ............................................................... 203
6. Extradition and asylum  ..................................................................... 203
7. diplomatic law  ..................................................................................... 206
Concluding Remarks  ...................................................................................... 210
bibliography  ..................................................................................................... 221
Index  ................................................................................................................... 241
A. Sources  ................................................................................................... 241
b. designated Texts  ................................................................................. 250
C. Treaties and Loyalty Oaths  .............................................................. 251
d. Topics  ...................................................................................................... 252
GENERAL EdITOR’S PREFACE
Within the grand narrative of the history of international law as it appears
from Western historiography, the Ancient Near East holds its place, if only
at the fringe. As the civilisations of the Ancient Near East and pre-Hellenistic
Greece are considered the cradles of Western civilisation, historians of
international law have time and again asked themselves if modern inter-
national law has roots in ideas and practices stemming from this remote
past. but this interest has induced very few historians of international
law to study the laws and rules governing the international relations of
the Ancient Near East in depth and in their own right. The discourse of
international legal historians on the Ancient Near East and by extension
on classical Antiquity is by and large dictated by the concern about their
place in the overall history of (Western) international law.
In fact, much of the debate on ancient international law among histori-
ans of international law focuses on two questions. First, did ‘international
law’ exist in Antiquity, and if so, in what periods from Antiquity? This
question is looked at from two perspectives. On the one hand, there is the
question whether the necessary conditions were fulfilled for an ‘interna-
tional law’ to emerge. For most authors, this would mean the existence of
regular relations between mutually independent powers, or by extension,
the existence of an international community of independent powers. On
the other hand, there are the related questions whether the rules govern-
ing these relations qualify as law and as ‘international’ in the sense that
they are based on international consent. Second, did the ‘international
law’ of Antiquity have any impact on later, medieval and modern, inter-
national law? Can we speak of a continuous development, and if so, how
did it come about?
but as Carlo Focarelli explains in a paper to be published in one of
the next volumes in this series,1 even a negative answer to both ques-
tions would not make the study of Antiquity obsolete for the understand-
ing of modern international law. Regardless whether ‘international law’
1 Carlo Focarelli, ‘The Early doctrine of International Law as a bridge from Antiquity
to Modernity and diplomatic Inviolability in 16th- and 17th-Century European Practice’, in
Randa ll Lesaffer (ed.), The Twelve Years Truce (1609–1621): Peace, truce, war and law in the
Low Countries at the turn of the 17th Century (Studies in the History of International Law,
Leyden/boston: Martinus Nijhoff, forthcoming).