The reason we have laws

I think there are many reasons civilizations need laws. If we didn't have laws the world would be chaotic. We would be steeling stuff, killing people, doing everything that we can't do now. The laws keep us in control. We still break the laws, but not as much as we would if there were no legs. Some of the laws I think are a bit harsh, like a lot of Hammuarbi's laws. He said that if a son attacks his father the son would have his hand cut off as a punishment. I think the reason that some laws were very harsh and intimidating back then because the leader of that place wants to stay in power. He might have been scared that someone would overthrow him so he would want to scare people with terrorfying laws. He wouldn't want people to think about overthrowing him.