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Law is usually understood today from a modern and western point of view, that is, as rules generated by the State and binding on citizens. Even legal historians tend to reproduce this understanding of law. However, the thesis of this article is that such a definition is insufficient, even more so if we consider the multiplicity of ways in which law has expressed itself throughout history. As an example of one such legal development, and of the way in which it was quickly drawn into the dominant legal model, this article focuses on Mesopotamian law codes, discussing their characteristics as well as their past and their current interpretations. The author then returns to the question about the concept of law, in light of the complexity of law in the past, and even of legal plurality in the present. Some attempts to pinpoint specific characteristics of law are shown to be unsatisfactory, thus underscoring the importance of law as a phenomenon existing inside the wider spectrum of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]