Documentary evidence might be demanded. The judges might decide to take the evidence of their own senses and go to see an estate or a house in dispute.[121] Or they might determine that it was a case for the accused to purge himself, which he did by oath.[122]
Rendering the decision
Having thus informed themselves of the rights of the case the judges proceeded to pronounce a decision, “they caused them to receive judgment.” This phrase nearly always occurs in the legal decisions. The decision might be called “the judgment of the particular judge,” for example, dîn Išarlim, “Israel's judgment.”[123] The sentence [pg 091] is sometimes stated in the words of the judges themselves, introduced by ikbu, “they said.”[124] Thus we read “the tablet which A granted to B is good, they said.”[125]
The collection of damages
If one party was in the wrong, the judges “laid the wrong on him,”[126] or “put him in the wrong.”[127] When the suit was to recover a debt, or find compensation, the judges might name a sum which they paid over to the proper person.[128] This was damages, not a fine.
Breaking a contract-tablet
A ceremony which often took place on the annulment of a former agreement, or cancelling of a deed was the breaking of the tablet embodying the former contract. The same ceremony took place on repayment of a debt, or on dissolution of a partnership, apparently without recourse to judges. This was ordered by the Code in case of purchases of property which it was illegal to sell or buy, such as the benefice of a reeve or runner.[129] So when an adopted child had failed to carry out the bond to nourish and care for the adoptive parent, the deed of adoption was formally broken by the judges.[130]
For later times we have little evidence. What there is was collected by Kohler-Peiser,[131] and agrees in general with the above.
The legal decision
6. The decision.—In these ways the judges “quieted the strife,” “composed the complaint.”[132] It was the standard conception of a legal decision that it should be irrevocable. The Code enacts the deprivation and deposition of a judge for revoking his judgment.[133] The legal decisions lay down the stipulation that the losing party shall not “turn back,” shall not “complain.” These phrases nearly always occur, as they do also in contracts. To insure compliance with the decision the judges again exacted an oath. Whether both parties swore, or only the losers, is not clear. The statement [pg 092] usually is “they swore,” without mention of the persons who did so.