St. Thomas Law Review
First Page
123
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The most important measure of damages is measure for measure: the rule of proportional damages, which in its most famous iteration is the rule of "eye for eye." Found most prominently in the biblical Book of the Covenant in Exodus 21:22-25, the rule states that where two men fight and in the course of their fight a pregnant woman and her fetuses are killed the penalty shall be "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, stripe for stripe." The biblical maxims "eye for eye" and "you have heard it said 'eye for eye,' well I say to you turn the other cheek," found in Matthew 5:38-39, are extraordinarily well known and widely misunderstood. They are also highly important in the development of jurisprudence to this day. Surprisingly, it was not until the 1990's when Professor Calum Carmichael of Cornell University rediscovered the meaning of "life for life, eye for eye" in Exodus: its meaning had been lost for over 2,000 years. By analyzing the story in the biblical narrative of Judah and Tamar, Professor Carmichael discovered that "life for life, eye for eye' in Exodus meant capital punishment followed by deprivation of burial rites to the point of complete and thorough destruction of the corpse, resulting (in the ancient way of thinking) in a second eternal "death" in the afterworld. Professor Carmichael wrote about the meaning of the phrase in the context of how the "eye for eye" rule fits within the context of the biblical narratives. Here I wish to trace the history of "eye for eye" in legal history, from its most ancient origins to its considerable influence upon modem jurisprudence.
Recommended Citation
Andrew R. Simmonds,
Measure for Measure: Two Misunderstood Prinicples of Damages, Exodus 21:22-25 Life for Life, Eye for Eye and Matthew 5:38-39 Turn the Other Cheek,
17
St. Thomas L. Rev.
123
(2004).
Available at:
https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol17/iss1/7