Why did hammurabi have his laws engraved in stone and placed in a public place?

This was actually a very smart behaviour. This way the law was accessible to everyone so on one hand, noone could say "I didn't know" and on the other hand it could be used for reference by anyone and people would not need to seek council in every matter. This also decreased the possibility to abuse power (if the law was only accessible to few, those few could abuse their power by manipulating it in their favour).

It sells out to its shareholders