ABSTRACT
Proportionality has been perceived as an integral part of justice since antiquity. The Code of Hammurabi with its “grim retaliatory punishments” 1 was probably seen to be proportional at the time. For example, a builder whose shoddy construction resulted in the death of the building’s owner was to be put to death as a form of retributive justice. As Charles F. Horne noted, “[w]e can see where the Hebrews learned their law of ‘an eye for an eye’”. 2 According to Aharon Barak, the Biblical “‘eye for an eye’ was considered a measured response”. 3
