An ancient legal text of the Old Babylonian Empire written in Akkadian by King Hammurabi provides a lot of wisdom for one of the national crises we have in Malta. The legal text, written in 1750 BC provides legal provisions in the case of building collapses whereby the builders have to take responsibility and pay restitution for the building collapse they are responsible. Restitution is equivalent to the damage caused so if you cause the death of someone else, you had to pay with your own life.
Of course, nowadays we no longer believe in the death penalty, but supposedly, rule-of-law still provides legal provisions for restitution which should also be equivalent to the damage caused. The reckless manslaughter of workers brought by greed with elements of fraud and corruption should be the subject of enough indictments whereby those that are found guilty end up spending their life in prison. This is quite a long stretch from the corrupt public officials who are proposing more Jungle Rules-style laws such as “name and shame”.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
Leave a Reply