At dawn of contract law. Means of securing the irrevocability of contracts in ancient Near Eastern law

The aim of the article is to present ways of securing the irrevocability of a contract, used in ancient Near Eastern law. They can be analyzed mostly on the basis of sale documents, which are the most numerous extant contracts. Usually, claims by the parties themselves, their kilth and kin, as well as by third persons are forbidden by so-called irrevocability clauses. Oath, corporal and financial penalties are used separately or jointly to protect the agreement. Although the penalties are sometimes extremely harsh, it does not mean that they were not enforced; in this was the case, they would very quickly lose their preventive force