"8-Point Violation of Bans", a Statute of Ancient Joson
Doctor and Associate Professor Kwon Sung An, Section Chief of the History Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences, said the statute of Ancient Joson represented the demands and interests of the class of slaveholders, and continued:
"Only three provisions of the '8-Point Violation of Bans' have been handed down up to date.
First, a murderer must be killed immediately. Second, the one who inflicted an injury upon the other has to compensate for it with cereals. Third, the one who stole the other's thing has to be a servant of the victim, irrespective of sex, or has to pay a huge sum of money amounting to 500,000 in order to be forgiven."
In general, the principle of "talion" was applied according to the law of a slave state, which means making an equal reprisal to the offender.
However, the "8-Point Violation of Bans" didn't apply this principle but called for compensating the loss with cereals.
This proves that the "8-Point Violation of Bans", a statute of Ancient Joson, was a very developed law at that time.
The "8-Point Violation of Bans" is a cultural heritage of the Korean nation representing the reality of the society during Ancient Joson where the antagonism and struggle between the two classes with slaveholders on one side and slaves and commoners on the other formed the basis of the social relations.