Debate among Assyriologists has since centred around several aspects of the Code: its purpose, its underlying principles, its language, and its relation to earlier and later law collections.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding these issues, Hammurabi is regarded outside Assyriology as an important figure in the history of law and the document as a true legal code.

[10] As with the Code of Hammurabi, however, it is difficult to interpret the purpose and underlying legal systems of these earlier collections, prompting numerous scholars to question whether this should be attempted.

[17] Scheil hypothesised that the stele had been taken to Susa by the Elamite king Shutruk-Nakhunte and that he had commissioned the erasure of several columns of laws to write his legend there.

[16] The editio princeps of the Code was published by Father Jean-Vincent Scheil in 1902,[26] in the fourth volume of the Reports of the Delegation to Persia (Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse).

[40] John Dyneley Prince called the Code's rediscovery "the most important event which has taken place in the development of Assyriological science since the days of Rawlinson and Layard".

[44] Several singled out perceived secularism: Owen Jenkins,[45] for example, but even Charles Souvay for the Catholic Encyclopedia, who opined that unlike the Mosaic Law the Code was "founded upon the dictates of reason".

After the list, Hammurabi explains that he fulfilled Marduk's request to establish "truth and justice" (kittam u mīšaram) for the people (292–302), although the prologue never directly references the laws.

[65] He then expresses a hope that "any wronged man who has a lawsuit" (awīlum ḫablum ša awātam iraššû) may have the laws of the stele read aloud to him and know his rights (3240'–3256').

[69][note 1] The epilogue contains much legal imagery, and the phrase "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak" (3202'–3203': dannum enšam ana lā ḫabālim)[70] is reused from the prologue.

Some of the curses are very vivid: "may the god Sin ... decree for him a life that is no better than death" (3486'–3508': sîn... balāṭam ša itti mūtim šitannu ana šīmtim lišīmšum);[72] "may he [the future defacer] conclude every day, month, and year of his reign with groaning and mourning" (3497'–3501': ūmī warḫī šanāt palēšu ina tānēḫim u dimmatim lišaqti);[72] may he experience "the spilling of his life force like water" (3435'–3436': tabāk napištišu kīma mê).

[73][note 1] Gods and goddesses are invoked in this order:[69] The Code of Hammurabi is the longest and best-organised legal text from the ancient Near East,[74] as well as the best-preserved.

[96] For example, Marc Van De Mieroop observes that the Code "deals with cattle and agricultural fields, but it almost entirely ignores the work of shepherds, vital to Babylonia's economy".

[97] Then, against the legislation theory more generally, highly implausible circumstances are covered, such as threshing with goats, animals far too unruly for the task (law 270).

[108] A. Leo Oppenheim remarked that the Code of Hammurabi and similar Mesopotamian law collections "represent an interesting formulation of social criticism and should not be taken as normative directions".

Key points of similarity are the list format and the order of the items,[110] which Ann Guinan describes as a complex "serial logic".

[120] However, more recent writers, such as Marc Van De Mieroop, Jean Bottéro, and Ann Guinan, have either avoided value judgments or expressed admiration.

[118] Linking the Code to the scribal tradition within which "list science" emerged also explains why trainee scribes copied and studied it for over a millennium.

One such principle is the presumption of innocence; the first two laws of the stele prescribe punishments, determined by lex talionis, for unsubstantiated accusations.

Whether or not this was true, suggesting that a wronged man have the stele read aloud to him (lines 3240'–3254')[note 1] is a concrete measure in this direction, given the inaccessibility of scribal education in the Old Babylonian period.

[143] As a word for a man of low social standing, it has endured, possibly from a Sumerian root, into Arabic (miskīn), Italian (meschino), Spanish (mezquino), and French (mesquin).

[23] Lastly, although influence is more difficult to trace, there is evidence that the Hittite laws may have been part of the same tradition of legal writing outside Mesopotamia proper.

[161] There was cultural contact between Mesopotamia and the Levant, and Middle Bronze Age tablets of casuistic cuneiform law have been found at Hazor.

[173][174][175] In the Digesta seu Pandectae (533), the second volume of the codification of laws ordered by Justinian I (527–565) of the Eastern Roman Empire, a legal opinion written by the Roman jurist Paulus at the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century in 235 AD was included about the Lex Rhodia ("Rhodian law") that articulates the general average principle of marine insurance established on the island of Rhodes in approximately 1000 to 800 BC as a member of the Doric Hexapolis, plausibly by the Phoenicians during the proposed Dorian invasion and emergence of the purported Sea Peoples during the Greek Dark Ages (c. 1100 – c. 750) that led to the proliferation of the Doric Greek dialect.

[180] There are replicas of the Louvre stele in institutions around the world,[citation needed] including the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City[181] and the Peace Palace in The Hague (seat of the International Court of Justice).

From a political science perspective, Hammurabi's Code is valuable and fundamental because it demonstrates how law was used to reinforce social hierarchies and maintain control.

Pearn (2016) writes that the Code's laws were applied differently depending on a person's social class, so nobles received greater protection than commoners and enslaved people.

This legal stratification reflects the power dynamic of Babylonian society and shows how law was used not just to govern but also to preserve the social order.

The harsh punishments may seem extreme by modern standards, but they were likely necessary to maintain order in a society where survival depended on strict adherence to rules.

By codifying laws and making them public, Hammurabi established a system that would influence generations so that the principles of justice, fairness, and accountability that underpin the Code continue to resonate today.