It is natural to inquire what were the laws of that earlier people in Babylonia who preceded the Semites and are now called Sumerians. The Semites took over their legal phrases, see above, and probably with them some of their laws. The Semitic scribes drew up long lists of these Sumerian phrases, many of which they still used in drawing up their legal documents, just as Latin phrases or Norman-French lingered on in our law-books. These phrases they translated, in parallel columns with the Sumerian. Such books of phrases were issued in long series. One such series, usually called _Ana Ittishu_, was discussed by BR. MEISSNER in the _Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, iv, pp. 301 ff. A great deal of it is published by P. HAUPT in vol. i of the _Assyriologische Bibliothek_; by F. HOMMEL in his _Sumerische Lesestücke_; by FR. DELITZSCH in his _Assyrische Lesestücke_, 3rd edition, 1900, pp. 130-2; and by MEISSNER in the _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, 1892, vii, pp. 16-32. PINCHES gives an account of it in the _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, iv, p. 256, 1910, where he calls it the _Ulutinabishu Series_. Not much law can be made out of this scrappy source; but one tablet records a set of regulations which seem to be extracted from a code. They are usually referred to as _The Sumerian Family Laws_, and are dealt with by T. G. PINCHES in the _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, iv, p. 257, 1910, and by JEREMIAS in the same work, v, p. 447. A full treatment by P. HAUPT is _Die sumerischen Familiengesetze in Keilschrift, Transcription und Übersetzung_ (Leipzig, 1879). WINCKLER, COOK, PEISER, UNGNAD, and most of the writers on the comparative side have quoted them in their above-named works. It may be doubted whether the so-called _Warnings to Kings against Injustice_, see T. G. PINCHES in his _Encyclopaedia_ article, iv, p. 261, note 1, are so early, or really preserve part of a code. References to legal reforms may be seen in the inscriptions of Urukagina, see L. W. KING’S _History of Sumer and Akkad_, pp. 178-84 and the references, but here again we cannot reconstruct much of the Sumerian law in question. We have noted the discussion, p. 75, of the way in which Semitic scribes regarded the Sumerian phrases they used. The conclusion that Hammurabi codified the earlier legislation was natural, and similarities in form suggested that he adopted much of the Sumerian law which was previously in force.