Reply #14: Look at Japan [View All]

a country that had no contact whatsoever with the West before the 1500s.

They had laws against murder, against theft, and against adultery, although as in every society, the powerful found ways to make exceptions for themselves.

Like all the East Asian cultures that were influenced by China, they had the concept of filial piety, or honoring your father and mother. It is reflected in Japanese law even today in a curious way: killing a parent is the type of murder that is punished most severely.

Since they weren't monotheistic, and neither Buddhism nor Shinto has a Sabbath, they didn't have anything comparable to the first few commandments.

By the way, in the Catholic/Lutheran version of the Ten Commandments, the tenth commandment is about not coveting anything. It starts out with "wife," goes on to "house," continues with a list, and ends with "nor anything that is they neighbor's." I suppose the thought was that covetousness can lead to the "big three" sins of murder, theft, and adultery.

When it comes to our legal system, our law is based on English common law, which goes back to the old Anglo-Saxon traditions and which was unique in Europe. Most Continental Western European countries today follow a legal system based on the Napoleonic Code. (I'm not sure what they had before Napoleon. A variant of old Roman law, perhaps?)