Court
The wisdom of king Solomon is encapsulated in a story about two women both claiming to be the mother of the same baby. The linked piece indicates that his pronouncement to "divide" the child revealed the real mother.
We don't actually know who the real mother was. His proposal was not actually some kind of quick and dirty genetics test.
What was revealed is which woman cared about the welfare of the child and would, thus, be a good mother to the child. If the biological mother was the one who didn't care about the welfare of the child, this incident prevented a future court case involving child abuse.
My understanding is that the term "court" as used in modern legal systems originated with Kings and other nobles holding court.
Something like once a week or once a month, you could go to the king's court -- i.e. his courtyard: an area of flat ground outside that is partly or completely surrounded by the walls of a building -- and speak to him about whatever you wished to bring up as a matter of concern.
This was almost certainly NOTHING like the court of our modern legal system.
The state of Louisiana uses French Civil Law, but most of the US uses British Common Law. This is an adversarial system.
We don't actually know who the real mother was. His proposal was not actually some kind of quick and dirty genetics test.
What was revealed is which woman cared about the welfare of the child and would, thus, be a good mother to the child. If the biological mother was the one who didn't care about the welfare of the child, this incident prevented a future court case involving child abuse.
My understanding is that the term "court" as used in modern legal systems originated with Kings and other nobles holding court.
Something like once a week or once a month, you could go to the king's court -- i.e. his courtyard: an area of flat ground outside that is partly or completely surrounded by the walls of a building -- and speak to him about whatever you wished to bring up as a matter of concern.
This was almost certainly NOTHING like the court of our modern legal system.
You could bring to his attention any matter you deemed fit, like "Did you know x thing was going on with the royal whatzit and the guards are doing blah and it's really causing headaches for the peasants who raise the food you eat?"
And then he could address the matter as he saw fit. He could:
And then he could address the matter as he saw fit. He could:
1. Explain to you why his guards are doing blah and you need to just put up with it.
2. He could have the head of his guards beheaded for it.
3. He could issue new orders that the guards will no longer do that because it's interfering unnecessarily and pointlessly with the work of the peasants who feed us ALL, you stupid idiot.
Historically, court meant speaking with the person in authority who was probably a lot better educated than you to try to resolve some problem. And that individual likely had substantial latitude to resolve it as they saw fit.
The state of Louisiana uses French Civil Law, but most of the US uses British Common Law. This is an adversarial system.
It's a bit like a sport with two teams and a game where one side is expected to win and one side is expected to lose.
Most likely, if the king was a wise and kind king like Solomon, courts of old worked kind of like a mom dealing with her kids. Which sometimes means feeding them both lunch and making them both nap rather than deciding which child is the guilty party and which is the victim.