Early Irish law refers to the statutes that governed everyday life and politics in Early Medieval Ireland. They were partially eclipsed by the Norman invasion

Norman Invasion of Ireland

The Norman invasion of Ireland was a two-stage process, which began on 1 May 1169 when a force of loosely associated Norman knights landed near Bannow, County Wexford...

 of 1169, but underwent a resurgence in the 13th century, and survived into Early Modern Ireland in parallel with English law over the majority of the island until the 17th century. "Early Irish Law" was often, although not universally, referred to within the law texts as "Fenechas", the law of the Feni, or the freemen of Gaelic Ireland

Gaelic Ireland

Gaelic Ireland is the name given to the period when a Gaelic political order existed in Ireland. The order continued to exist after the arrival of the Anglo-Normans until about 1607 AD...

 mixed with Christian influence and juristic innovation. These secular laws existed in parallel, and occasionally in conflict, with Canon law

Canon law (Catholic Church)

The canon law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation. It lacks the necessary binding force present in most modern day legal systems. The academic...

 throughout the early Christian period.

The laws were a civil

Private law

Private law is that part of a civil law legal system which is part of the jus commune that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts or torts, as it is called in the common law, and the law of obligations as it is called in civilian legal systems...

 rather than a criminal

Criminal law

Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...

 code, concerned with the payment of compensation for harm done and the regulation of property, inheritance and contracts; the concept of state-administered punishment for crime was foreign to Ireland's early jurists. They show Ireland in the early medieval period to have been a hierarchical society, taking great care to define social status, and the rights and duties that went with it, according to property, and the relationships between lords and their clients and serfs.

The secular legal texts of Ireland were edited by D.A. Binchy in his six-volume Corpus Iuris Hibernici. The oldest surviving law tracts date to the 8th century.

Origins

No single theory as to the origin of early Irish law is universally accepted. Early Irish law consisted of the accumulated decisions of the Brehon

Brehon

Brehon is the term in Gaelic-Irish culture for a judge. The Brehons were part of the system of "Brehon Law". The Brehons wore yellow robes when delivering verdicts. Several dozen families were recognised as hereditary brehon clans.-See also:* Mac an Bhaird...

s, or judges, guided entirely by an oral tradition. Some of these laws were recorded in text form by Christian clerics. The early theory to be recorded is contained in the Pseudo-Historical Prologue to the Senchas Már. According to that text, after a difficult case involving St. Patrick, the Saint supervised the mixing of native Irish law and the law of the church. A representative of every group came and recited the law related to that group and they were written down and collected into the Senchas Már, excepting that any law which conflicted with the law of the church was replaced. The story also tells how the law transitioned from the keeping of the poets

Fili

A fili was a member of an elite class of poets in Ireland, up into the Renaissance, when the Irish class system was dismantled.-Elite scholars:According to the Textbook of Irish Literature, by Eleanor Hull:-Oral tradition:...

, whose speech was "dark" and incomprehensible, to the keeping of each group who had an interest in it. The story is extremely dubious as, not only is it written many centuries after the events it depicts, but it also incorrectly dates the collection of the Senchas Már to the time of St. Patrick while scholars have been able to determine that it was collected during the eighth century, at least three centuries after the time of St. Patrick. Some of the ideas in the tale may be correct, and it has been suggested by modern historians the Irish jurists were an offshoot from the poetic class which would have previously preserved the laws.

For some time, especially through the work of D. A. Binchy

D. A. Binchy

Daniel Anthony Binchy was a scholar of Irish linguistics and Early Irish law.From 1919-20 he was Auditor of the Literary and Historical Society...

, the laws were held to be conservative and useful primarily for reconstructing the laws and customs of the Proto-Indo-Europeans

Proto-Indo-Europeans

The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...

 just as linguists had reconstructed the Proto-Indo-European language

Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...

. For instance, historians have seen comparisons between Irish and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n customs of fasting

Hunger strike

A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...

 as a method of shaming a wrongdoer, in order to recover a debt or to demand the righting of a wrong. Other legal institutions prominent in early Irish law but foreign to most contemporary legal systems, such as the use of sureties

Surety

A surety or guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults...

, have been considered as survivals from earlier periods. More recently historians have come to doubt such attributions. While few historians would argue that all Irish law comes from church influence, they are today much more wary as to what material is a survival and what has changed. A past may still be suggested for a certain legal concept based on Irish legal terms' being cognate with terms in other Celtic languages, although that information does not prove that the practice described by the legal term has not changed.

Today the legal system is agreed to be some mixture of earlier law influenced by the church as well as adaptation through methods of reasoning which the Irish jurists would have sanctioned. It is not, however, agreed as to just how large a role each of these aspects may have played in the creation of the legal texts, but rather it represents an important scope for debate. There is, however, one area where scholars have found material that is clearly old. A number of legal terms have been shown to have originated in the period before the Celtic Languages

Celtic languages

The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...

 split up because they are preserved in both Old Irish and in the Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 legal texts. On the other hand, this is not regarded as unquestionable evidence that the practices described by such terms are unchanged or even have their origins in the same period as do the terms.

Another important aspect when considering the origins is that the early Irish law texts are not always consistent. Early Irish law is, like the Old Irish language, remarkably standard across an Island with no central authority. However, close examination has revealed some variations. Among these one can especially point to variations both in style and content between two of the major legal schools, as they are known; those which produced the Bretha Nemed and Senchas Már respectively.

Women and marriage

Cáin Adomnáin

Cáin Adomnáin

The Cáin Adomnáin , also known as the Lex Innocentium was promulgated amongst a gathering of Irish, Dál Riatan and Pictish notables at the Synod of Birr in 697. It is named after its initiator Adomnán of Iona, ninth Abbot of Iona after St...

, a Christian Law, promulgated by the Synod of Birr in 697, sought to raise the status of woman of that era, although the actual effect is unknown. Regardless, although Irish society under the Brehon Laws was male-dominated, women had greater freedom, independence and rights to property than in other European societies of the time. Men and women held their property separately. The marriage laws were very complex. For example, there were scores of ways of combining households and properties and then dividing the property and its increase when disputes arose. Later, under the church laws, rules relating to marriage changed. For example, in this later era, a woman could not pass her property onto her children. Divorce

Divorce

Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...

 was provided for on a number of grounds (e.g. impotence or homosexuality on the husband's part), after which property was divided according to what contribution each spouse had made to the household. A husband was legally permitted to hit his wife to "correct" her, but if the blow left a mark she was entitled to the equivalent of her bride-price in compensation and could, if she wished, divorce him. Property of a household could not be disposed of without the consent of both spouses. However, under church law, women were still largely subject to their fathers or husbands and were not normally permitted to act as witnesses, their testimony being considered "biased and dishonest".

Kingship

While scholars have discovered a fair amount on the way in which Irish Kingship worked, relatively little is actually related by the early Irish laws. In particular, very little material survives regarding succession practices which have been reconstructed as the system of Tanistry

Tanistry

Tanistry was a Gaelic system for passing on titles and lands. In this system the Tanist was the office of heir-apparent, or second-in-command, among the Gaelic patrilineal dynasties of Ireland, Scotland and Man, to succeed to the chieftainship or to the kingship.-Origins:The Tanist was chosen from...

; a section of the Senchas Már tract on status was apparently devoted to succession, although little survives. Most early material on succession was collected by Domnal O'Davoren

O'Davoren

The Ó Duibhdábhoireann family were scholarly clan of Corcomroe, Thomond , Ireland active since medieval times....

 in the 16th century Another seemingly important omission is that the laws never mention the High King of Ireland

High King of Ireland

The High Kings of Ireland were sometimes historical and sometimes legendary figures who had, or who are claimed to have had, lordship over the whole of Ireland. Medieval and early modern Irish literature portrays an almost unbroken sequence of High Kings, ruling from Tara over a hierarchy of...

 centered at Tara

Hill of Tara

The Hill of Tara , located near the River Boyne, is an archaeological complex that runs between Navan and Dunshaughlin in County Meath, Leinster, Ireland...

. Likewise, the laws only once mention the practice of individuals being ineligible for kingship if they are blemished (a practice which is evidenced more widely elsewhere, especially in Irish mythology

Irish mythology

The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...

). However, that mention is only incidental to a regulation on the compensation for bee stings when the legal tract Bechbretha relates the story of Congal Cáech

Congal Cáech

Congal Cáech was a king of the Cruithne of Dál nAraidi, in modern Ulster, from around 626 to 637. He was king of Ulster from 627-637 and, according to some sources, High King of Ireland.-Sources:...

 who was deposed on account of being blinded by a bee.

A fair amount of the material on kings relates to their position within the Irish laws of status, which see, of which the king is ranked at the top, parallel with the Bishops and the highest level of poets

Fili

A fili was a member of an elite class of poets in Ireland, up into the Renaissance, when the Irish class system was dismantled.-Elite scholars:According to the Textbook of Irish Literature, by Eleanor Hull:-Oral tradition:...

. Three levels of kings are referred to in the status tracts, such as Críth Gablach: rí

Rí

Rí, or very commonly ríg , is an ancient Gaelic word meaning "King". It is used in historical texts referring to the Irish and Scottish kings and those of similar rank. While the modern Irish word is exactly the same, in modern Scottish it is Rìgh, apparently derived from the genitive. The word...

 benn, (the king of peaks) who is identified elsewhere as the rí túaithe (king of a [single] túath

Tuath

Túath is an Old Irish word, often translated as "people" or "nation". It is cognate with the Welsh and Breton tud , and with the Germanic þeudō ....

), who is below the rí

Rí

Rí, or very commonly ríg , is an ancient Gaelic word meaning "King". It is used in historical texts referring to the Irish and Scottish kings and those of similar rank. While the modern Irish word is exactly the same, in modern Scottish it is Rìgh, apparently derived from the genitive. The word...

 buiden (the king of bands) who is identified with the rí

Rí

Rí, or very commonly ríg , is an ancient Gaelic word meaning "King". It is used in historical texts referring to the Irish and Scottish kings and those of similar rank. While the modern Irish word is exactly the same, in modern Scottish it is Rìgh, apparently derived from the genitive. The word...

 túath (king of [multiple] túaths) or ruiri (overking), who in turn is below the rí

Rí

Rí, or very commonly ríg , is an ancient Gaelic word meaning "King". It is used in historical texts referring to the Irish and Scottish kings and those of similar rank. While the modern Irish word is exactly the same, in modern Scottish it is Rìgh, apparently derived from the genitive. The word...

 bunaid cach cinn (the ultimate king of every individual) who is known also as the rí ruirech (king of overkings) and rí

Rí

Rí, or very commonly ríg , is an ancient Gaelic word meaning "King". It is used in historical texts referring to the Irish and Scottish kings and those of similar rank. While the modern Irish word is exactly the same, in modern Scottish it is Rìgh, apparently derived from the genitive. The word...

 cóicid (king of a province).

To a certain degree, kings acted as agents of the law. However, while other kings in Europe were able to promulgate law, such as Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...

 and his Doom book

Doom book

The Doom Book, Code of Alfred or Legal Code of Aelfred the Great was the code of laws compiled by Alfred the Great The Doom Book, Code of Alfred or Legal Code of Aelfred the Great was the code of laws ("dooms", laws or judgments) compiled by Alfred the Great The Doom Book, Code of Alfred or Legal...

, the Irish had very little authority to do so. They could collaborate on law authored by the church; Cáin Adomnáin

Cáin Adomnáin

The Cáin Adomnáin , also known as the Lex Innocentium was promulgated amongst a gathering of Irish, Dál Riatan and Pictish notables at the Synod of Birr in 697. It is named after its initiator Adomnán of Iona, ninth Abbot of Iona after St...

has the names of many kings attached to it who would apparently have acted to enact/enforce the law. Additionally, a king could issue a temporary law in times of emergency. But kings could not, by their own authority, issue permanent law codes. Kings would also act as judges, although the extent of their power compared to that of professional jurists has been debated. One law tract, Gubretha Caratniad, describes a brithem giving advice to a king (in this case, advice which seems flawed but which is actually correct) who then gives it as judgment in a case. It is unclear, therefore, how much kings would have been able to make judgments by themselves and how much they would have had to follow the advice of a professional. It is clear, however, that a king would have had to give judgment in accordance with the laws. However, the kings do not appear to have stood as judges in all cases, and in some cases the professional jurists would take that role.

One subject which the laws did cover is how the king fit within the rest of the legal system. The king was not supposed to be above the law. In fact, some stipulations applied specifically to the king. However, as the king was the most powerful individual, and the one with the highest honor in an area, it was difficult to enforce the law against him. Although it might have been possible to proceed against the king as against any other, the laws also had an innovative solution to this quandary. Instead of enforcing against the king directly, a dependent of the king known as an aithech fortha (substitute churl) would be enforced against instead, and the king would be responsible for repaying the substitute churl. The laws also specified certain cases in which a king would lose his honor price. These would include doing the work of a commoner, moving around without a retinue, and showing cowardice in battle; again, though, it is unclear how often such stipulations were followed.

Finally, the laws commented on how the king was to arrange his life and holdings and how many individuals should be in his retinue. In particular, Críth Gablach gives a highly schematized and unrealistic account of how the king spends his week: Sunday is for drinking ale

Ale

Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...

, Monday is for judging, Tuesday is for playing fidchell

Fidchell

Fidchell or gwyddbwyll was an ancient Celtic board game. The name in both Irish and Welsh is a compound translating to "wood sense"; the fact that the compound is identical in both languages demonstrates that the name is of extreme antiquity...

, Wednesday is for watching hounds hunt, Thursday is for sexual union, Friday is for racing horses

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

, and Saturday is for judging (a different word from Monday, but the distinction is unclear).

Status

According to the introduction to the Senchas Már the world had numerous problems before the creation of that text. Among those problems was that everyone was in a state of equality. Unequal status was of great import to early Irish society and it is recorded in many places in the early Irish laws.

The Irish law texts describe a highly segmented world, in which each person would have a set status that would determine what legal tasks they could undertake and what recompense they were to receive when a crime was committed against them. Críth Gablach and Uraicecht Becc

Uraicecht Becc

Uraicecht Becc is an Old Irish legal tract on status. Of all status tracts, it has the greatest breadth in coverage, including not only commoners, kings, churchmen and poets, but also a variety of other professional groups, including judges. However, it does not go into as much detail for each...

are two of the main texts focusing on lay landholders, the latter of which also briefly covers the status of skilled individuals and of clerics. Other texts describe other groups, such as Uraicecht na Ríar which focuses on the status of poets.

Much would depend upon one's status and each rank was assigned an honor that was quantified in an honor-price to be paid to them if their honor was violated by certain crimes. The types of food one received as a guest in another's house or while being taken care of due to an injury would vary based on status. Lower honor-prices could limit one's ability to act as sureties

Surety

A surety or guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults...

 and as witnesses. Those of higher status could "over-swear" the oaths of those of lower status.

Ecclesiastical grades

In part the seven Ecclesiastical grades originate outside of Ireland although their position in Ireland has been shaped by local thinking. They are given in Uraicecht Becc

Uraicecht Becc

Uraicecht Becc is an Old Irish legal tract on status. Of all status tracts, it has the greatest breadth in coverage, including not only commoners, kings, churchmen and poets, but also a variety of other professional groups, including judges. However, it does not go into as much detail for each...

as liachtor (lector

Lector

Lector is a Latin term for one who reads, whether aloud or not. In modern languages the word has come to take various forms, as either a development or a loan, such as , , and . It has various specialized uses:...

), aistreóir (doorkeeper), exarcistid (exorcist

Exorcist

In some religions an exorcist is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or other demons. A priest, a nun, a monk, a healer, a shaman or other specially prepared or instructed person can be an exorcist...

), subdeochain (sub-deacon), deochain (deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

), sacart (priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

), and escop (bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

) although Bretha Déin Chécht puts the lector in a third position. These grades are subsumed into the Irish law of status, but it is unclear to what degree the conformed to all of the various status stipulations. It may be noted however that, according to Críth Gablach, the seven grades of the church are the basis for the theoretical seven lay and poetic grades (see below). At the same time it is clear that the number seven is an insular invention, in the Eastern Church there were normally five or six grades (sometimes more), and the Western Church typically had eight or nine grades.

Although the various groups were theoretically on par with each other, the church apparently had supremacy. Críth Gablach states "Who is nobler, the king or the bishop? The bishop is nobler, for the king rises up before him on account of the Faith; moreover the bishop raises his knee before the king." This relative ranking is reflected elsewhere. In addition, according to Críth Gablach the ranking of the lay grades was modeled after the ecclesiastical grades in that there should be seven grades, a number rarely met perfectly.

Lay grades

Irish law recognized a number of grades of people from unfree up to king which were ranked within the status tracts. Little space was given to the unfree, which is reflective of the lack of dependence upon slaves as opposed to other societies, such as Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

. However, slaves were mentioned in the laws, both male and female, and the term for a female slave, cumal, became a broader currency term. As unfree, a slave could not be a legal agent either for himself or in the case of another In addition to the wholly unfree, there are a few individuals who are semi-free. The senchléithe (hereditary serf) was bound to the work the land of his master, whereas the fuidir had no independent status nor land of his own, but could at least leave as he might desire.

Others might not be of full status based on their age or origins. The status of children would be based upon that of their parents and could not act independently of them. The rights of sons would increase with age, but they would not fully increase until after the death of the father. A young son who is just out on his own was known as a fer midboth (a man of middle huts), apparently someone who would occupy a hut upon the land of his father. These persons would be semi-independent but would not have the full honor-price of a free man until they reached 20. Even after a certain age a "Son of a Living Father" would be expected to be dutiful to his father and could only set up an independent household with the permission of his father. In addition, those from outside of a túath would normally have a low status as status was based not only on property but also on familial connections.

There are two main ranks of commoners, the ócaire (lit. young lord) and bóaire

Boaire

Bóaire was a title given to a member of medieval and earlier Gaelic societies prior to the introductions of English law according to Early Irish law. The terms means a "Cow lord". Despite this a Bóaire was a "free-holder", and ranked below the noble grades but above the unfree...

(cow lord), although Binchy takes the ócaire to be a recent offshoot of the latter who would have less property but still be a freeman. In addition are the bóaire febsa (a bóaire of quality who had an honor-price of 5 séts). The highest commoner was the mruigfer (land man). Either of the last, according, Binchy, may be the "normal bóaire who appears within the law texts. The three ranks of commoners, at least according to the status tract, vary in the type of clientship they would undertake as well as the property which they would hold, although it is unclear how such would work in practice. The commoners would apparently have to cooperate in farming as they would not have enough property to own a whole plough-share or all the rights in a mill.

Above these are a series of lords who apparently would have had clients of their own – the primary factor in lordship, as well as more property and a higher honor-price. According to Críth Gablach, each grade of lord increase by 5 séts for each rank, and would also increase in the number of clients. In addition, when they travel they would be expected to maintain a retinue with them. A lord would not only have greater ability, but also would need to take greater steps to preserve their honor, lest they lose their lordship. The order of lords varies, but in Críth Gablach it is as follows: aire déso (lord of vassals), aire ard (high lord), aire tuíseo (lord of precedence), and the aire forgill (lord of superior testimony).

After the normal lords are the tánaise ríg, who was supposed to be the heir to the throne. He had higher property qualifications that the aire forgill, but his prime claim to higher status was that he would one day be the king. The individuals with highest status described in the laws are the kings. The basic king would have an honor price of seven cumals, and the higher kings would have yet a higher status. As the individual with highest status, the king especially was expect to be careful in keeping his honor, and cowardice as demonstrated in flight from battle, as well as taking up manual labor might make him lose his honor-price.

These grades are generally equated with the seven grades of clerics, although there is some discrepancy as to how the grades line up, with various texts doing it in different ways and selecting only certain lay grades and ignoring others.

The ranking of lay grades has been seen by many scholars as rather schematic and not reflecting realities on the ground. Some of the texts give considerable detail on diet, tools owned, number of livestock and even the size of a house which a person of a given status would have. Modern scholars have generally assumed that such details would rarely match exactly what someone of a given rank would have. In addition, Críth Gablach contains the fee a client would pay to a lord according to rank from the lowest free man through the noble ranks even though none of the nobles would be another's client.

Poetic grades

Paralleling the status of the lay grades are the grades of the fili

Fili

A fili was a member of an elite class of poets in Ireland, up into the Renaissance, when the Irish class system was dismantled.-Elite scholars:According to the Textbook of Irish Literature, by Eleanor Hull:-Oral tradition:...

d (poets). Each poetic rank corresponds to a particular lay (and ecclesiastical) rank, from Bóaire to king. In Uraicecht na Ríar these are given as fochloc, macfuirmid, dos, cano, clí, ánruth, and ollam

Ollam

In Irish, Ollam or Ollamh , is a master in a particular trade or skill. In early Irish Literature, it generally refers to the highest rank of Fili; it could also modify other terms to refer to the highest member of any group: thus an ollam brithem would be the highest rank of judge and an ollam rí...

. These are given the same status as and the same honor prices as the lay grades, and hence have effectively the same rights. The qualifications for each grade is where the difference occurs. The qualifications fit into three categories, the status of the poet's parent or grandparent, their skill and their training. Particular number of compositions are give for each rank, with the ollam having 350.

In addition to the seven main ranks, there are variously named ranks below these which seem to be names for unskilled poets, the taman, drisiuc, and oblaires. Their honor prices are no more than a pittance, and their poetry is apparently painful to hear.

Other grades

Other professions could give status based on the profession and the skill, but no professions besides poets could have a status as high as the bishop, king, or highest poet. For instance in one text the jurist

Jurist

A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...

 or brithem had three ranks, and the highest was given an honor price only half way up the other scales. The ranking of a brithem was based on his skill and whether he knew all three components of law (here: traditional law, poetry, and canon law), or fewer. A craftsman

Master craftsman

A master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....

 who worked with wood could have similar honor-prices but these were based on his craftsmanship. However, a physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and a blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

 among other ranks would have an even lower honor-price, less than half of what the brithem could achieve and the honor-price apparently did not vary based on his skill. Other professionals, such as the maker of chariot

Chariot

The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...

s or engravers had still lower honor-prices (less than that of a bóaire). Finally a few professions receive only meagre ranks, as with the lowest poets, and the authors may be actively making fun of some of the professions, such as comb

Comb

A comb is a toothed device used in hair care for straightening and cleaning hair or other fibres. Combs are among the oldest tools found by archaeologists...

 makers.

Change in status

Status in early Ireland was not entirely rigid and it was possible for a family to raise their status; if for three consecutive generations the grandfather, and the father, and the son had the property qualifications of a lord, or the poetic qualifications of a higher level poet, etc. then the member of the third generation would become a lord, etc. On the other hand the son/grandson of a lord or a poet

Fili

A fili was a member of an elite class of poets in Ireland, up into the Renaissance, when the Irish class system was dismantled.-Elite scholars:According to the Textbook of Irish Literature, by Eleanor Hull:-Oral tradition:...

, etc., who did not have the proper qualifications would not have that status. However, the grandson of a person with a certain status could have that status themselves, assuming they had the proper qualifications, even if their father did not.

This created an interesting in-between stage. A commoner who had the property qualifications but not the parentage to become a lord is variously referred to as a flaith aithig, (a commoner lord), a fer fothlai (a man of withdrawal), or an aire iter da airig (an aire [here with a broader meaning than lord] between two [types of] aires). According at least to Críth Gablach, these individuals would have higher status than a commoner but lower than that of a full lord. In the case of poets, a poet with skill qualifications but who did not have proper training is referred to as a bard

Bard

In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...

. (However, it has been suggested that poets who were not allied with the church were given this rank for that reason).

In addition, there were ways in which, under extraordinary circumstance, an individual could achieve higher status without having parents with such qualifications. If one chose to become a briugu (hospitaller), one would have twice the normal property qualifications of a lord of whatever grade (and this can extend, in theory, up to the qualifications of a king). Further, a briugu had to have his house open to any guests, which included feeding them no matter how large the group – he would lose his status if he ever refused a guest. Because of that stipulation, the position of briugu was potentially ruinous, and this outcome is portrayed in a number of tales such as in Togail Bruidne Da Derga and Scela Mucce Meic Datho

The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig

The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig is a legendary tale from early Irish literature, written primarily in prose and heroic saga form and placed within the Ulster Cycle. The story's composition in its present form can probably be attributed to an unknown author of Leinster c...

. A commoner might also ascend to the status of a lord if he is a aire échta (lord of violence). Such a person helped individuals to avenge deaths committed in another túath for a limited time after the cessation of hostilities, although the details are unclear. A poet who had the skill and training of a rank, but not the proper familial qualifications, would receive half the honor price that his skill and training would otherwise earn him.

Clientship

A member of the property-owning classes could advance himself by becoming a "free client" of a more powerful lord, somewhat akin to the Roman system of clientship

Patronage in ancient Rome

Patronage was the distinctive relationship in ancient Roman society between the patronus and his client . The relationship was hierarchical, but obligations were mutual. The patronus was the protector, sponsor, and benefactor of the client...

. The lord would make his client a grant of property (sometimes land, but more usually livestock) for a fixed period of time. The client would owe service to his lord, and at the end of the grant period would return the grant with interest. Any increase beyond the agreed interest was his to keep. This allowed for a certain degree of social mobility as an astute free client could increase his wealth until he could afford to have clients of his own, thus becoming a lord in his own right.

A poorer man could become a "base client" by selling a share in his honour-price, making his lord entitled to part of any compensation due him. The lord would make him a smaller grant of land or livestock, for which the client would pay rent in produce and manual labour. A man could be a base client to several lords simultaneously.

Physical injury

On account of the structure of early Irish society, all law was essentially civil and offenders had to answer only to the victim or the victim's representative. This is important to point out as in case of serious injury

Injury

-By cause:*Traumatic injury, a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident*Other injuries from external physical causes, such as radiation injury, burn injury or frostbite*Injury from infection...

 it is in stark contrast to most modern legal systems.

Payment for wounding

Although early Irish law recognized a distinction between intentional and unintentional injury, any type of injury was still normally unlawful and requiring compensation. The main exception is injuries received when the victim has gone into a place where injury is likely. In all other cases an injurer would be responsible for paying a fine. The legal text Bretha Déin Chécht "The Judgments of Dían Cécht

Dian Cecht

In Irish mythology, Dian Cécht , also known as Cainte, Canta, was the God of healing to the Irish people. He was the healer for the Tuatha Dé Danann and the father of Cian, Cú, and Cethen...

" goes into considerable detail in describing the fines based on the location of the wound

Wound

A wound is a type of injury in which skin is torn, cut or punctured , or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion . In pathology, it specifically refers to a sharp injury which damages the dermis of the skin.-Open:...

, the severity, and in some cases the type.

According to that text, the payment would be decided after a period of nine days by a physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

. Prior to that time, the victim would be looked over by his family and a physician. It is suggested that effects of the wound would be clear to a physician at that point if not before. First, either the victim would have died if such was likely, or it would be clear that the patient would be in danger; if the first was the case the injurer would have to face the punishment for murder and in the second he would have to pay a heavy fine known as crólige báis, "blood-lying of death." If the victim had recovered but his wound was still present it would be measured and a fine had to be paid for it. Bretha Déin Chécht describes that the wound would be measured according to how many grains of a certain plant would fit into the wound. The higher status one was, the smaller the grain used. Thus, there are nine grains mentioned in the text, from a grain of wheat to a bean. If wound would not heal, and thus the physical blemish might be a problem for the victim's honor, further payments would be necessary.

Early Irish law saw certain locations, known as the "twelve doors of the soul" were considered particularly severe. It has been suggested that this is because the potential for such wounds to turn deadly, although the law texts do not suggest any reason. In such cases the physician would be entitled to a greater share of the fine – one half. Similarly, if the wound is one of "the seven principal bone-breakings," or if it causes constant vomiting or bloody urine the physician would also receive a greater fee.

Sick maintenance

If it seemed that the patient would recover but still needed to be nursed, than the injurer would be responsible for his nursing. This was known as sick maintenance, rendering variously crólige, folog n-othrusa, folog, or othrus in different texts. Bretha Crólige goes into great detail about this process, describing how the injurer would be responsible for finding a suitable location and moving the victim. Then the injurer would have to pay also for the food which the victim and a retinue – which could be considerable depending on the victim's rank – was entitled to. The injurer was also responsible for providing someone to fulfill the victim's duties while he is sick. He also had to pay a fine for the missed opportunity for procreation if appropriate.

Bretha Crólige also goes into the importance of keeping a proper environment for the victim during his sick-maintenances. Largely this means that anything that might cause loud noise was prohibited in the vicinity. This would have included fights by men as well as by dogs, the playing of games and even the disciplining of children.

However, it is also clear from the law tracts that the practice of Sick Maintenance was being discarded. Thus, while Críth Gablach mentions some of what each individual is entitled to while being nursed according to his rank, it also mentions that the practice was no longer in use and instead an additional fine was used which would encompass the same provisions that the injurer would have to pay for if sick maintenance was used. Bretha Crólige does not mention anything about the practice being obsolete. However, it does mention that certain types of person could not be maintained because of the difficulty in doing so. Thus it was very hard to provision those of the highest rank and obviously impossible to find a substitute to do their work. Certain professionals could similarly be difficult. On the other hand, a number of persons could cause difficulty to the people maintaining the victim. Such troublesome individuals included the insane and women likely to cause trouble for those nursing them.

Murder and avoidance of capital punishment

Early Ireland has the distinction of being one of the first areas to shun capital punishment

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

. While a murderer might be killed for his/her crime, this was the option of last resort. Instead the murderer typically had to pay two fines. One is the fixed éraic or cró, that is either a "body fine" or a "wergild", and the other is the Log nEnech, an honor price which varied according to the status of the victim. Should the murderer be unable to pay by himself, his family would normally be responsible for paying any amount which the murderer could not pay. Should the family be either unable or unwilling to pay, the victim's family would take custody of the murderer. At this point, the victim's family had three options; the first two were to either await payment or to sell the murderer into slavery. A third possibility was that they would kill the murderer, but even then the monetary possibilities may have discouraged capital punishment in some cases. In certain cases, though, where the killer and victim were relatives, capital punishment could not be carried out as it would make the executioner commit fingal or "kin-slaying". In a second situation the murderer could also be killed. That is, if the murderer was at large and the fines had not been paid, the victim's family was apparently responsible to launch a blood feud

Feud

A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another...

. It is, of course, unclear how often capital punishment was carried out in situations where it would be licit without any records other than the legal tracts. However, it is clear that that punishment could be avoided in most cases.

The origin of this particular legal provision is as unclear as the rest of Irish law. However, the so called "Pseudo-Historical Prologue to the Senchas Már", a late introduction to the main collection of Irish law, makes a claim on how this came about. It declares that prior to the coming of St. Patrick, Irish law demanded capital punishment in all cases of murder. However, Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 was supposed to preach forgiveness. The two fines are apparently a compromise so that the murderer is both punished and forgiven. However, it is at least dubious whether or not this is a valid historical account, given the lateness of the story (originating hundreds of years after Patrick's time).

Kinship

Early Irish law recognized a number of degrees of agnatic kinship

Kinship

Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....

, based on common male ancestor. The closest kin group which is defined gelfine (bright-kin), the descendants of a common grandfather (including the grandfather's relationships to his descendants and his children), which is followed by the derbfine

Derbfine

The derbfine was an Irish agnatic kinship group and power structure as defined in the law tracts of the eighth century. Its principal purpose was as an institution of property inheritance, with property redistributed on the death of a member to those remaining members of the derbfine...

(certain-kin), the descendants of a common great grandfather, the iarfine (after-kin), the descendants of a common great great grandfather, and the indfine (end-kin), all of which contain the old Irish word for kin or family, fine. The derbfine is, by far, the kin-group which is most commonly mentioned.

One member of the kin-group would be its leader, known either as ágae fine (pillar of the family) or cenn fine (head [literally] of the family). He would apparently be a senior member selected from the kin-group based on various qualifications. One of his main responsibilities was to take responsibility for members of the kin-group, acting as a surety for some of the actions of members, making sure debts are paid (including for murder), although if the member could not be made to pay, the fee would normally be paid generally by members of the kin. He would also be responsible for unmarried women after the death of their fathers.

As mentioned above, the actions of a member could result in a fine having to be paid by other kin. However, in certain cases the kin-group could refuse liabilities, although in some cases only after they been proclaimed as a non-member, which might occur if the member did not carry out his responsibilities to the kin. One particularly heinous crime in early Irish law was fingal (kin-slaying), because it was against a group which should have some right to trust. The killer would have to give up their kin-land, but would still be liable to pay the fines incurred by other members of the kin. An undutiful son might also be excluded from certain kin rights as well, especially as sons of a living father generally did not have significant rights of legal actions except as permitted by the father.

Inheritance

Early Ireland practiced partitive inheritance whereby each of the sons would receive equal portions, and any grandsons whose father predeceased their grandfather would equally split their father's portion. Early Irish law typically did not distinguish between "legitimate" and "illegitimate" children, so any recognized, even those of concubines, would receive a portion. On the other hand, disobedient sons were automatically excluded. In addition, adopted children could receive a portion of kin land although this status as an inheritor and the amount they would inherit would have to be explicitly stipulated. When the Normans entered Ireland and saw this practice they named it Gavelkind

Gavelkind in Ireland

Under Brehon Law Gavelkind, also known as partible inheritance, was a species of tribal succession, by which the land was divided at the death of the holder amongst his sons.Sons of concubines, but not daughters, were included in the division...

 on account of its apparent similarity to Saxon inheritance in Kent

Gavelkind

Gavelkind was a system of land tenure associated chiefly with the county of Kent, but found also in other parts of England. Its inheritance pattern bears resemblance to Salic patrimony and as such might testify in favour of a wider, probably ancient Germanic tradition.It was legally abolished in...

The divisions of land is somewhat obscure. One maxim suggests that the youngest son divided the land into equal parts. The eldest chose first, followed by the second and so on until the youngest received the remaining land. This was intended so that the division of land would be made equally. Other laws suggested that the eldest son would have automatically claims to the buildings. However, there are some hints that this only happened if a younger son challenged a division; the normal practice would have been that the eldest son both divided and chose first but had to divide equally. More rarely, a father might divide the land for his sons in his lifetime.

While a daughter with brothers would not normally receive a portion of the inheritance in land, she would inherit movable property. However, should there be no sons, some of the law tracts allow the daughter to inherit a limited portion. However, unless her husband was a foreigner

Alien (law)

In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.-Categorization:Types of "alien" persons are:*An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign to him or her. On specified terms, this kind of alien may be called a legal alien of that country...

 to the túath and had no land of his own, the land would not descend to her sons, but instead return to the other members of her agnatic kin group. However, there was apparently pressure for a woman with land to marry a relative to keep the land within the kin group.

Finally, if a man died without children of either gender, the property would be distributed between his next nearest kin, first the descendants of his father, and if there were no such descendants, then it would be between the descendants of his grandfather, and so on. Any extra land which daughters could not inherit because of female inheritance limits, would also go to the wider kin. The head of a kin group was entitled to extra property since he would be liable for debts which a kinsman could not pay.

Land rights of kin

The potential for inheritance by even distant kin meant that, in Early Irish law, those kin all had some sort of right in the land. Land which had been inherited was known as finntiu (kin-land). Certain rights of use of land by the owners kin seem to have existed. Moreover, it was possible that land could be redistributed if a certain branch of the family had few descendants and hence larger shares in the land per person. In such a case even some more distant cousins could acquire the land, although they would have benefited less than closer kin. Apparently because of these potential claims it could apparently be difficult to alienate kin-land. However, even when selling land which an individual had acquired separately from inheritance, a portion would go to his kin.

Changes in the legal system

Ireland had no regular central authority capable of making new law and hence the Brehon

Brehon

Brehon is the term in Gaelic-Irish culture for a judge. The Brehons were part of the system of "Brehon Law". The Brehons wore yellow robes when delivering verdicts. Several dozen families were recognised as hereditary brehon clans.-See also:* Mac an Bhaird...

 laws were entirely in the hands of the jurists. As such some early scholars felt that the legal system was essentially unchanging and archaic. However, more recently scholars have noticed that some methods of change were laid out within the Brehon laws. In particular, Cóic Conara Fugill mentions 5 bases upon which a judge must base his judgment and at least three offer some room for change: fásach legal maxim

Legal maxim

A legal maxim is an established principle or proposition. The Latin term, apparently a variant on maxima, is not to be found in Roman law with any meaning exactly analogous to that of a legal maxim in the Medieval or modern sense of the word, but the treatises of many of the Roman jurists on...

, cosmailius (legal analogy

Analogy

Analogy is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another particular subject , and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process...

), and aicned (natural law

Natural law

Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...

) (the other two are roscad, a type of legal verse which jurists were trained to create and hence marked a statement made by someone who knows the law and teistimin (scriptural testimony)). However, it has not yet been studied in detail how exactly these three innovative methods were used.

Maxims

The Use and application of maxims is clearly a location where the principles of Irish law could be recorded. Any number of maxims may be found within the Early Irish Laws and perhaps the reason why we are unable to derive a coherent theory of law from them is because there are a great many different topics. Some do seem to represent a legal theory, such as the maxim in Bechbretha that "no-one is obliged to give something to another for nothing" and that in Bretha Crólige that "the misdeed of the guilty should not affect the innocent". These maxims do say more than one might think since legal systems often have problems balancing the interests of all. The majority of maxims, however, treat with more specific problems. The main problem, however, with our understanding of maxims is that while one law text tells us that they were used as a basis of judgment we know little else about them; we do not even know how exactly maxims could be used for judgment. A further complication is that we know very little about the origin of maxims (or even what the jurists thought was the origin) and similarly we do not know whether jurists were introducing new maxims regularly or whether all maxims were supposed to be from time immemorial.

Natural law

Early Irish law mentions in a number of places recht aicned or natural law

Natural law

Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...

. This is a concept apparently borrowed from, or at least akin with, European legal theory, and reflects a type of law which is universal and may be determined by reason and observation of natural action. Neil McLeod has identified with concepts that law must accord with fír (truth) and dliged (right

Right

Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...

 or entitlement), two further terms which also occur frequently although they are never strictly defined in Irish law. Similarly, the term córus (law in accordance with proper order) is used in some places and even in the titles of certain texts. The laws tell stories of how truth could apparently cure a person and falsehood could cause blisters. These were two very real concepts to the jurists and the value of a given judgment with respect to them was apparently ascertainable. McLeod has also suggested that most of the specific laws mentioned have passed the test of time and thus their truth has been confirmed, while other provisions are justified in other ways because they are younger and have not been tested over time.

Legal procedure

The early Irish laws are devoid of a state centered enforcement mechanism and at least some of the judges were outside the state apparatus. This did not mean that the laws were ineffective, rather the methods of enforcement of legal procedures worked in such a way to fit with the conditions of society.

Suretyship

Sureties

Surety

A surety or guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults...

 were the prime enforcers in early Irish law. They were not government officials but rather sureties were normally appointed when a contract or other legal relationship. Berad Airechta, the law tract which deals most with sureties, offers formulaic speeches which the contractors may have said in order to appoint sureties and to make the sureties swear to perform their duties properly. In addition to sureties appointed for specific contracts, relatives might be expected to act as sureties in cases which they were not specifically bound. However, there is also evidence that most sureties would either be relatives or lords of the contractor.

Three types of sureties appear in Irish law. The naidm (and in earlier texts macc) refers to a surety who is expected to enforce payment from the contractor. Apparently, in standard contracts two naidmain (plural of naidm) were appointed by each party. The word naidm, however, might also refer to the "binding" of a contract. If the contractor whom he is appointed for defaults it is the naidms responsibility to attempt to make the contractor pay. If however he does not act or does not put in sufficient effort he loses his honour price. In attempting to extract payment, the naidm had a wide range of powers. He might distrain

Distraint

Distraint or distress is "the seizure of someone’s property in order to obtain payment of rent or other money owed", especially in common law countries...

 the contractors property, imprison or even violently attack the contractor. Apparently, as with witnessing, someone could not be a naidm to a contract worth more than his honor-price.

The ráth is generally referred to as a "paying surety". Should the contractor default it ráths responsibility to pay the debt from his own property. He would then be able to attempt to extract the money from the contract. Assumedly, the ráth would only pay if the naidm had been unable to make the debtor pay. Since acting as a ráth could mean financial loss that might not be repaid, the law tracts apparently see the position as dangerous and as one of three "dark things of the world". However, it is clear also that the ráth, like the other sureties, would be paid a fee when they were hired which would potentially make up for the risk undertaken. Again, a person was not able to act as a ráth in contracts worth more than his honor-price although it was possible that one might act as a ráth for only part of a contract, in which case they would be responsible for payment only up to their honor-price.

Finally, the aitire is a surety who would become a hostage in the case of a default. Once the hostage was in captivity, the debtor had ten days to pay the debt in order to have the hostage released. If the hostage was not released by then the expenses to the debtor could become exorbitant. The aitire would have to pay his own ransom by paying his body-price which would be expensive and the debtor would have to pay twice that fee plus the surety's honor-price. The aitire could enforce the debt to him by himself.

Relationship to the church and church law

Brehon

Brehon

Brehon is the term in Gaelic-Irish culture for a judge. The Brehons were part of the system of "Brehon Law". The Brehons wore yellow robes when delivering verdicts. Several dozen families were recognised as hereditary brehon clans.-See also:* Mac an Bhaird...

 law was produced in the vernacular language by a group of professional jurists. The exact relationship of those jurists to the church is subject to considerable debate. However, it is clear that Brehon law at times were at odds with and at times influenced by the Irish Canon Law.

Vernacular church law

A number of law tracts which originated from the church were written in Old Irish. The most famous of these is Cáin Adomnáin

Cáin Adomnáin

The Cáin Adomnáin , also known as the Lex Innocentium was promulgated amongst a gathering of Irish, Dál Riatan and Pictish notables at the Synod of Birr in 697. It is named after its initiator Adomnán of Iona, ninth Abbot of Iona after St...

. This law was apparently created in 697 under the influence of Adomnán and was ratified by a number of ecclesiasts and Kings whose names were included in the text. The idea of the law was apparently to supplement the punishments of Brehon law for crimes against women, children, and clerics. In some ways it follows the ideas embodied in Brehon law although there are differences. For instance in its use of capital punishment which is generally avoided in Brehon law.

Canon law

More contradictions exists with Latin Canon Law such as in the Collectio canonum Hibernensis

Collectio canonum Hibernensis

The Collectio canonum Hibernensis is a systematic Latin collection of canon law, scriptural and patristic excerpts, and Irish synodal and penitential decrees...

(Irish Collection of Canons) than with Vernacular Church law. Brehon law allows polygyny

Polygyny

Polygyny is a form of marriage in which a man has two or more wives at the same time. In countries where the practice is illegal, the man is referred to as a bigamist or a polygamist...

 (albeit while citing the authority of the Old Testament

Old Testament

The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

) and divorce among other actions which canon law expressly forbid.

At the same time it is clear that the two legal systems have borrowed from each other. Much Latin terminology has entered into Old Irish and into the legal system, such as a type of witness teist from Latin testis. The Collectio Canonum Hibernensis also borrows terms found in Brehon law such as rata from Old Irish rath, a type of surety

Surety

A surety or guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults...

. The latter also suggests more substantive borrowing from Brehon Law into Canon Law.

There are a number of places where it is clear that law was borrowed in one direction or another. Large sections on the Church have been translated wholesale from the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis into a section of the Law tract Bretha Nemed. Other overlaps have been suggested, in many cases where biblical references seem to appear in the Brehon law. of course, it is not always clear in cases where both cite the same rule which came up with the rule originally. In addition to substantive law, other legal aspects may be seen in both, such as the propensity towards the use of analogy.

Relationship of jurists with the church

The above similarities have led scholars to ask what relationship did Brehons have with clerics. Some scholars, known as anti-nativists, have suggested that the Brehons were nothing more than clerics who had training in secular law. In addition to the similarities and evidence of borrowing from Canon law and the Bible, scholars who hold this position ask how any non Clerics could have been sufficiently literate at this period to create the texts. Other scholars, known as nativists, have asked how the differences could arise if the authors of Canon and Secular law were indeed the same.

Legal texts

Scholars have found over 100 distinct texts which we know about, with their survival ranging from complete texts, through various degrees of partial preservation, and in some cases only as a name in a list and even, in one case, a tract that scholars have decided must have existed. Almost all of the secular legal texts existing in various manuscripts have been printed in D.A. Binchy's six volume Corpus Iuris Hibernici and a few texts which were left out of that work made it into another book intended as a companion to the Corpus Iuris Hibernici.

Senchas Már

A number of the legal texts may be categorized together on account of related authorship. The largest such grouping in the Senchas Már a collection of at least 47 separate tracts which were compiled into a single group sometime in the eighth century although the individual tracts vary in date. It may also be mentioned that the tracts are almost certainly written by a variety of authors, although there have been suggestions that certain authors wrote more than one of the included tracts. The collection was apparently made somewhere in the north midlands. The Senchas Már tracts have been subjected to the greatest amount of gloss

Gloss

A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....

ing and commentary in later manuscripts. Moreover, one of the few examples of Old Irish glossing has been given to the various texts of Senchas Már. These glosses were apparently made in Munster

Munster

Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...

.

The text has been arranged into three thirds—three was apparently a number of particular importance to the Irish, a number of laws were grouped into threes which were called triads, a practice common also among the Welsh

Welsh Triads

The Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness...

. One scholars has recently suggested that there were a number of groups of six including one single tract, generally from the first third, two contiguous tracts generally in the second third, and three contiguous tracts from the third third. Each group of six is theorized to be related to each other in various ways. The prologue ascribes the authorship of the book to a committee of nine appointed by St Patrick to revise the laws. It was composed of three kings, three bishops, and three professors of literature, poetry, and law. Chief among the latter was Dubthach. It became his duty to give an historical retrospect, and in doing so he exhibited "all the judgments of true nature which the Holy Ghost had spoken from the first occupation of this island down to the reception of the faith. What did not clash with the word of God in the written law and in the New Testament and with the consciences of believers was confirmed in the laws of the brehons by Patrick and by the ecclesiastics and chieftains of Ireland. This is the Senchus Mor."

Pseudo-historical Prologue

A few specific texts may be usefully mentioned here. The Pseudo-Historical Prologue was not an original part of the Senchas Már, but was actually a later addition which attempted to give a historical background. It should be noted that there is also an original introduction distinct from this text. The Pseudo-Historical Prologue was concerned with the changes in the Brehon law which it suggested occurred at the coming of Christianity. In effect, Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints....

 is supposed to have blessed the mouth of the Chief Ollam of Ireland

Chief Ollam of Ireland

The Ollamh Érenn or Chief Ollam of Ireland was a professional title of Gaelic Ireland.-Background:An ollam was a poet or bard of literature and history. Each chief or tuath had its own ollam...

, Dubhthach moccu Lughair

Dubhthach moccu Lughair

Dubthach maccu Lugair is a legendary Irish poet and lawyer who supposedly lived at the time of St Patrick's mission in Ireland and in the reign of Lóegaire mac Néill, high-king of Ireland. In contrast to the king and his druids, he is said to have readily accepted the new religion...

 who then gave judgment on a particular case regarding the killing of Saint Odran

Saint Odran

Odran was the charioteer of Saint Patrick and was the first Irish Christian Martyr. He lived about 430.There are two different versions given about Odran’s martyrdom...

 an assistant and charioteer to Saint Patrick and then continued to recite the rest of the law leaving unaltered those laws which were acceptable to God and altering those which were not. This case is also given as the reason why Brehon law did not favor capital punishment; while the murderer of Patrick's assistant was killed and immediately sent to heaven because he was forgiven by Patrick, future murderers were to be pardoned as Patrick would not be around to assure their forgiveness and ascent to heaven. There is, however, no reason to think that the events described actually occurred although they do offer important insight in how the Brehons thought about their own law.

Cethairslicht Athabálae

Literally the four paths of distraint

Distraint

Distraint or distress is "the seizure of someone’s property in order to obtain payment of rent or other money owed", especially in common law countries...

, a process by which one was allowed under certain circumstances to seize goods owed by another. However, in Brehon law one does not immediately own the property, rather animals are taken to an intermediary land to wait in case the original owner will pay the debt. As time passes, the animals are slowly forfeited. This tract deals primarily with four types of distraint, divided based on the waiting period. The waiting period apparently varies based on the circumstance although no one has yet determined what exactly those circumstances are. Other material present includes information of other aspects of legal procedure and a long section where the author asks and then answers multiple times, why the tract is called Cethairslicht Athgabálae.

Cáin Sóerraith and Cáin Aicillne

These two texts, "The Regulation of Noble Fief" and "Regulation of Base Clientship", deal with the structure of lord client relations. These two tracts regulate the circumstances of entering into clientship as well as setting forth what goods and services were given by the lord in return for what goods and services the client would give.

Cáin Lánamna

This tract, the "Law of Couples", deals with not only regulations for marriage but for other unions as will. It lists tens types of coupling including three types of formal marriage, five unions where there are sexual relations but no sharing of property or cohabitating, union by rape and union by two who are mentally incompetent. The text then goes on to deal with common property as well as how it is divided upon divorce. Broken link.

Córus Bésgnai

The vaguely named tract Córus Bésgnai (or Córus Béscnai) has been translated as both "The Ordering of Discipline" or "The Regulation of Proper Behavior". This is a tract which describes the relationship between the Church and the people as a contract; the people have to donate tithes and first fruits and the like, while the church must provide services such as baptism and make sure that its members must be honest, devout, and qualified. This is also a text which has been used both to try to show the influence of the church on Brehon law and to also to point to certain aspects which canon lawyers would disapprove of.

Sechtae

At the beginning of the second third of the Senchas Már is collection of "Heptads" or collections of seven related rules (although in some cases there are more than seven). This tract actually has no single theme, rather it is useful for what it can say about various aspects of Brehon law. The tract includes sixty five heptads, although more appear elsewhere in the Senchas Már.

Bechbretha and Coibes Uisci Thairdne

"Bee-Judgments" and "Kinship of Conducted Water" are two tracts which some scholars believe to have been written by the same author. These two tracts both present legal information about relatively new animal and technological introductions to Irish law from elsewhere in Europe, Bee

Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...

s and Watermill

Watermill

A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...

s. Hence they show the Brehons adapting to new legal challenges. In particular, this is one area where it is possible to see legal analogy in action.

Slicht Othrusa, Bretha Crólige and Bretha Déin Chécht

Sections on Sick-Maintenance, "Judgments of Blood-Lyings and Judgments of Dían Cécht

Dian Cecht

In Irish mythology, Dian Cécht , also known as Cainte, Canta, was the God of healing to the Irish people. He was the healer for the Tuatha Dé Danann and the father of Cian, Cú, and Cethen...

 are three contiguous tracts in the third third of the Senchas Már. The first two deal with the practice of sick-maintenance (see above) and the third deals with payments for injuries. Unfortunately Slicht Othrusa only survives as a fragment. These tracts give us most of our knowledge on the law regarding injury, while a few other tracts exist which cover specific situations.

Nemed texts

In addition to the school which produced the Senchas Már, scholars have detected a few other legal schools which produced texts. The next most fully formed is the Nemed or Bretha Nemed school, named after two of the texts which it produced. This school, which has been referred to as "poetico-legal" apparently was located in Munster, based on references which the authors make to the King of Munster and to two monasteries within Munster.

Bretha Nemed Toísech and Bretha Nemed Déidenach

These two texts, the "First Judgment of Privileged Ones" and the "Final Judgment of Privileged Ones" are the later scribal

Scribe

A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession and helps the city keep track of its records. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing...

 names of two texts written primarily in the obscure roscad style of poetry. The first describes the roles and status of the church, poets and various other professionals. The final primarily with the status and duties of poets although it contains other material as well. The first is also one of the few early texts which scholars have assigned an author, namely three brothers hua Búirecháin who are a bishop, a poet, and a judge.

Uraicecht Becc

The Uraicecht Becc

Uraicecht Becc

Uraicecht Becc is an Old Irish legal tract on status. Of all status tracts, it has the greatest breadth in coverage, including not only commoners, kings, churchmen and poets, but also a variety of other professional groups, including judges. However, it does not go into as much detail for each...

("Small primer") is a text on status which has the greatest breadth in coverage, including not only commoners, kings, churchmen and poets, but also a variety of other professional groups, including judges. However, it does not go into as much detail for each group and level as do other status tracts.

Other texts

A number of other texts exist which have not been grouped together as coming from either the same author or from the same school. This is not to say, however, that no affiliation existed for the authors of other texts, only that scholars have not been able to find them. A few important texts may be mentioned.

Berrad Airechta

Literally "Shearing of the Court", Fergus Kelly has suggested that this might mean more loosely "court summary" or "synopsis of court procedure." The text deals with a number of topics for judicial procedure, but most importantly on the role of the various types of sureties. Perhaps even more interesting, it covers the ways in which sureties would be appointed to do their duties and hence it is informative on the way contracts were created.

Críth Gablach

"Branched Purchase" is the title of what is perhaps the most well-known tract on status and certainly the most accessible, as a modern printed edition (though not a translation) has been published by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Dublin, Ireland was established in 1940 by the Taoiseach of the time, Éamon de Valera under the . The Institute consists of 3 schools: The , the and the . The directors of these schools are currently Professor Werner Nahm, Professor Luke Drury and...

. The text goes into details on the grades of commoners and nobility: what property should they own, how large should their house be, how should their clientship be arranged. The text however present a schema which would not have been used in actuality. For instance, included is the clientship information for even the highest nobility who would not have acted as clients. The text also presents a certain amount of interesting information on the duties of king.

In addition to the main text, there is a poem which immediately follows it in the manuscript, but there has been some debate as to whether this is actually a part of the tract.

Di Astud Chor

"On the Binding of Contracts" is a two part text which deals with when contract

Contract

A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...

s are binding and when they are not. The first section deals with general rules regarding when contracts are binding, including an analogy to the fact that Adam's trade of an apple for access to the Garden of Eden

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...

 was valid even though it was an uneven contract because Adam knew it was such. The second half deals with cases in which a contract may be over turned. The tract is also interesting because it is a collection of material from varying dates and places and as such much more uneven in content than other tracts.

Uraicecht na Ríar

The "Primer of Stipulations" is a text on the status of poets. It includes information on compensation based on status, but it also includes information about the poetic craft such as the number of type of positions one must have to be a certain grade. It also describes the difference between a fili

Fili

A fili was a member of an elite class of poets in Ireland, up into the Renaissance, when the Irish class system was dismantled.-Elite scholars:According to the Textbook of Irish Literature, by Eleanor Hull:-Oral tradition:...

and a bard

Bard

In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...

.

Later texts

While most of the legal tracts were composed during the seventh an eighth centuries, there were some independent tracts as well as a significant amount of glossing and commentary which began often within a century of when some of the tracts were composed.

Glosses and commentary

The most voluminous legal material written after the eighth century takes the form of notes upon that earlier material. There have been numerous questions about the degree to which such glossators understood material which they were working upon. However, it is also possible that in some cases jurists used the earlier material for a legitimate method of explaining the ways in which the law had come to work. This material takes two main forms: glossing between the lines of a text, and mini texts which begin with a quote from earlier legal material.

The 16th Century jurist Domnall O'Davoren

O'Davoren

The Ó Duibhdábhoireann family were scholarly clan of Corcomroe, Thomond , Ireland active since medieval times....

 created a glossary in which he quoted from many other sources. In many cases it is only text which includes certain quotes as well as information about certain whole law tracts. Its primary focus, however, is to list and define certain words, particularly legal terms, and as such has provided significant help in understanding the oldest laws.

Later legal tracts

While the majority of legal texts were written before the ninth century, a few were written later. "The Distribution of Cró and Dibad" is a Middle Irish text which deals with extracting fines from a killer and dividing a dead man's property. Additionally, the legal text Cóic Conara Fugill(the Five Paths of Judgment) was originally written during the earliest period but received a number of subsequent recension

Recension

Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author...

s afterward. The text deals with how a court case should proceed based on the substance of the intended argument. It is not clear, however, what distinctions are made in this text.

Case law

Early Irish Law is almost completely lacking in case law

Case law

In law, case law is the set of reported judicial decisions of selected appellate courts and other courts of first instance which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents in a process known as stare decisis...

. What exists are a few brief references in a number of texts, both legal and non-legal, which reference the laws in action. For instance Bechbretha mentions the case of a king who lost his throne because he was blinded by a bee. Additionally, the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 Life of St. Columba

Columba

Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...

 refers to the case of a man who killed another and the subsequent punishment which he was supposed to endure.

Decline of the Brehon laws

Following the Norman invasion [from 1169], areas under Anglo-Norman control were subject to English law. One of the first changes came with the Synod of Cashel

Synod of Cashel

The Synod of Cashel of 1172, also known as the Second Synod of Cashel,The first being the Synod held at Cashel in 1101 was assembled at Cashel at the request of Henry II of England shortly after his arrival in Ireland in October 1171...

 in 1172, which required single marriages to partners that were not closely related, and exempted clergy from paying their share of a family's eraic payments.

Henry II

Henry II of England

Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...

, who created the Lordship of Ireland

Lordship of Ireland

The Lordship of Ireland refers to that part of Ireland that was under the rule of the king of England, styled Lord of Ireland, between 1177 and 1541. It was created in the wake of the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71 and was succeeded by the Kingdom of Ireland...

, was also by chance a legal reformer within his empire, and started to centralize the administration of justice and abolish local customary laws. Strongbow

Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke

Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke , Lord of Leinster, Justiciar of Ireland . Like his father, he was also commonly known as Strongbow...

 was assigned large parts of Leinster in 1170 under the Brehon law by his new father-in-law Dermot McMurrough that were then regranted by Henry. Landowners such as the Earl of Kildare could claim a continuous title that just predated the Lordship itself.

In the centuries that followed, a cultural and military "Gaelic revival" eventually came to cover the larger portion of the island. The majority of Norman barons eventually adopted Irish culture and language

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

, married in with the native Irish, and adopted Irish legal custom. By the 15th century, in the areas outside of the English controlled Pale

The Pale

The Pale or the English Pale , was the part of Ireland that was directly under the control of the English government in the late Middle Ages. It had reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast stretching from Dalkey, south of Dublin, to the garrison town of Dundalk...

 around Dublin, and some notable areas of joint tradition in northern and eastern Munster

Munster

Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...

, Brehon law became the de facto legal writ.

Nevertheless, the Brehon Laws could never be adopted on an official basis by the English-controlled government of the Lordship of Ireland

Lordship of Ireland

The Lordship of Ireland refers to that part of Ireland that was under the rule of the king of England, styled Lord of Ireland, between 1177 and 1541. It was created in the wake of the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71 and was succeeded by the Kingdom of Ireland...

, although some modernized concepts have been readopted in the laws of the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. The imposition of the Statutes of Kilkenny

Statutes of Kilkenny

The Statutes of Kilkenny were a series of thirty-five acts passed at Kilkenny in 1366, aiming to curb the decline of the Hiberno-Norman Lordship of Ireland.-Background to the Statutes:...

 in 1367 and the policy of Surrender and regrant

Surrender and regrant

During the Tudor conquest of Ireland , "surrender and regrant" was the legal mechanism by which Irish clans were to be converted from a power structure rooted in clan and kin loyalties, to a late-feudal system under the English legal system...

 effectively outlawed Brehon Law. In one exceptional case, vestigial rights have been recognised in recent Irish case law, in reference to the survival of Brehon law-governed customary local fishery rights in Tyrconnell, but these also amounted to an easement

Easement

An easement is a certain right to use the real property of another without possessing it.Easements are helpful for providing pathways across two or more pieces of property or allowing an individual to fish in a privately owned pond...

 under Common Law.

The Tudor conquest of Ireland in the mid-16th century, ending in the Nine Years' War

Nine Years' War (Ireland)

The Nine Years' War or Tyrone's Rebellion took place in Ireland from 1594 to 1603. It was fought between the forces of Gaelic Irish chieftains Hugh O'Neill of Tír Eoghain, Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tír Chonaill and their allies, against English rule in Ireland. The war was fought in all parts of the...

 (1594–1603), caused Tanistry

Tanistry

Tanistry was a Gaelic system for passing on titles and lands. In this system the Tanist was the office of heir-apparent, or second-in-command, among the Gaelic patrilineal dynasties of Ireland, Scotland and Man, to succeed to the chieftainship or to the kingship.-Origins:The Tanist was chosen from...

 and Gavelkind

Gavelkind in Ireland

Under Brehon Law Gavelkind, also known as partible inheritance, was a species of tribal succession, by which the land was divided at the death of the holder amongst his sons.Sons of concubines, but not daughters, were included in the division...

, two cornerstones of the Brehon Laws, to be specifically outlawed in 1600. The extension of English law into Ulster

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

 became possible and led in part to the Flight of the Earls

Flight of the Earls

The Flight of the Earls took place on 14 September 1607, when Hugh Ó Neill of Tír Eóghain, Rory Ó Donnell of Tír Chonaill and about ninety followers left Ireland for mainland Europe.-Background to the exile:...

 in 1607.

Elements of Brehon law operated in dwindling remnants in the Gaeltacht

Gaeltacht

is the Irish language word meaning an Irish-speaking region. In Ireland, the Gaeltacht, or an Ghaeltacht, refers individually to any, or collectively to all, of the districts where the government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant language, that is, the vernacular spoken at home...

 in the west of Ireland and in the Scottish Isles, notable on the isle of Lewis

Lewis

Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The total area of Lewis is ....

. On Lewis, the chiefs of the Morrison clan (earlier, Clann mhic Amhlaigh (Macaulays) of Uig in Lewis, and Sliochd a' Bhreitheimh, later Morrison) continued to hold office as hereditary brieves (Scots

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 for bretheamh or brehon) or judges of the MacLeod clan of Lewis

Clan MacLeod of Lewis

Clan Macleod of The Lewes, commonly known as Clan MacLeod of Lewis, is a Highland Scottish clan, which at its height held extensive lands in the Western Isles and west coast of Scotland. From the 14th century up until the beginning of the 17th century there were two branches of Macleods: the...

 into the seventeenth century.

"... the location of the Morisons was at Ness,0 in Lewis, where the head of the Clan was Britheamh or Hereditary Judge long before Fifeshire colonists were heard of. It is not likely, as the late Captain Thomas put it, that any of the Brieves ever understood a word of English, and as the Scotch laws were never translated into Gaelic, it seems that the native or Brehon Laws must have been administered in this part of Scotland as late as the 17th century." (Dan Iain Ghobha: The poems of John Morison, cit. – Arch. Scot., Vol. V., p. 366.)::

The last Morrison to exercise the office was put down with Letter of Fire and Sword in about 1619 It is probable that it was last operative in Lewis by about 1595 or so. See the later history of Clan Morrison

Clan Morrison

Clan Morrison is a Scottish clan. There are numerous Scottish clans, both Highland and Lowland, which use the surname Morrison. In 1965, the Lord Lyon King of Arms decided to recognise one man as chief of all Morrisons, whether their clans were related or not.-Morrisons of mainland Scotland:The...

.

Fictional references and Ulster cycle of legends

The Brehon laws play a large role in the Sister Fidelma

Sister Fidelma

Sister Fidelma is a fictional detective, the eponymous heroine of a series by Peter Tremayne . Fidelma is both a lawyer, or dalaigh, and Celtic religieuse....

 series of historical (7th c AD) crime books by Peter Tremayne, and in those of Cora Harrison's Mara, Brehon (investigating judge) of the Burren (early 16th c AD).
They are also the underlying principles seen in such Irish saga as Táin Bó Flidhais

Táin Bó Flidhais

Táin Bó Flidhais, also known as the Mayo Táin, is a tale from the Ulster Cycle of early Irish literature. It is one of a group of works known as Táin Bó, or "cattle raid" stories, the best known of which is Táin Bó Cúailnge...

 and Táin Bó Cuailnge

Táin Bó Cúailnge

is a legendary tale from early Irish literature, often considered an epic, although it is written primarily in prose rather than verse. It tells of a war against Ulster by the Connacht queen Medb and her husband Ailill, who intend to steal the stud bull Donn Cuailnge, opposed only by the teenage...

External links

• The Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook by Laurence Ginnell, 1894
• The Law of the Couple: translation of an Irish legal text on marriage
• Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies – School of Celtic Studies Catalogue of relevant publications
• Solarguard Brehon Precis of Fergus Kelly's A Guide to Early Irish Law
• The Brehon Laws – Catholic Encyclopedia
  Catholic Encyclopedia
  The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
  
   article

Comparative customary law systems

• Anglo-Saxon Dooms
• Early Frisian laws
• Celtic law
  Celtic law
  A number of law codes have in the past been in use in Celtic countries. While these vary considerably in details, there are certain points of similarity....
  
  
• Welsh Law
  Welsh law
  Welsh law was the system of law practised in Wales before the 16th century. According to tradition it was first codified by Hywel Dda during the period between 942 and 950 when he was king of most of Wales; as such it is usually called Cyfraith Hywel, the Law of Hywel, in Welsh...
  
   (Wales
  Wales
  Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
  
  )
• Laws of the Brets and Scots
  Leges inter Brettos et Scottos
  The Leges inter Brettos et Scottos or Laws of the Brets and Scots was a legal codification under David I of Scotland...
  
   (Scotland
  Scotland
  Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
  
  )
• Anglo-Saxon law
  Anglo-Saxon law
  Anglo-Saxon law is a body of written rules and customs that were in place during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, before the Norman conquest. This body of law, along with early Scandinavian law and continental Germanic law, descended from a family of ancient Germanic custom and legal thought...
  
   (England
  England
  England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
  
  )
• Early Germanic law
  Early Germanic law
  Several Latin law codes of the Germanic peoples written in the Early Middle Ages survive, dating to between the 5th and 9th centuries...
  
  
• Medieval Scandinavian laws
• Aqsaqal
  Aqsaqal
  Aqsaqal in Turkic languages literally means "white beard", and metaphorically refers to the male elders, the old and wise of the community...
  
   (Central Asia
  Central Asia
  Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
  
  )
• Adat
  Adat
  Adat in Indonesian-Malay culture is the set of cultural norms, values, customs and practices found among specific ethnic groups in Indonesia, the southern Philippines and Malaysia...
  
   (Malays of Nusantara
  Nusantara
  Nusantara is an Indonesian word for the Indonesian archipelago. It is originated from Old Javanese and literally means "archipelago".The word Nusantara was taken from an oath by Gajah Mada, as written on an old Javanese manuscript Pararaton and Negarakertagama...
  
  )
• Urf
  Urf
  Urf العرف is an Arabic Islamic term referring to the custom, or 'knowledge', of a given society. To be recognized in an Islamic society, Urf must be compatible with Sharia law...
  
   (Arab world
  Arab world
  The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
  
  /Islamic law
  Sharia
  Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
  
  )
• Pashtunwali
  Pashtunwali
  Pashtunwali or Pakhtunwali is a non-written ethical code and traditional lifestyle which the indigenous Pashtun people from Afghanistan and Pakistan follow. Some in the Indian subcontinent refer to it as "Pathanwali". Its meaning may also be interpreted as "the way of the Pashtuns" or "the code of...
  
   and Jirga
  Jirga
  A jirga is a tribal assembly of elders which takes decisions by consensus, particularly among the Pashtun people but also in other ethnic groups near them; they are most common in Afghanistan and among the Pashtuns in Pakistan near its border with Afghanistan...
  
   (Pashtuns
  Pashtun people
  Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
  
   of Pakistan
  Pakistan
  Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
  
   and Afghanistan
  Afghanistan
  Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
  
  )
• Smriti
  Smriti
  Smriti literally "that which is remembered," refers to a specific body of Hindu religious scripture, and is a codified component of Hindu customary law. Smṛti also denotes non-Śruti texts and is generally seen as secondary in authority to Śruti. The literature which comprises the Smrti was...
  
   and Ācāra
  Acara
  Acara may refer to:* Acara , a former region of the Ottoman Empire in present-day Georgia* Blue acara, a colorful freshwater fish* Zebra acara, a tropical freshwater fish...
  
   (India
  India
  India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
  
  )
• Coutume
  Coutume
  Coutumes are legal customs of France.During the Middle Ages and early modern period the French kings and their vassals constantly asserted the importance and, in effect, primacy of customary law, especially in the lands north and west of Paris. The area where the French customary law was in force...
  
   (France
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
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• Customary Aboriginal law
  Customary Aboriginal law
  Customary law in Australia relates to the systems and practices amongst Aboriginal Australians which have developed over time from accepted moral norms in Aboriginal societies, and which regulate human behaviour, mandate specific sanctions for non-compliance, and connect people with both each other...
  
   (Australia
  Australia
  Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
  
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• Xeer
  Xeer
  Xeer, pronounced , is the polycentric legal system of Somalia. Under this system, elders serve as judges and help mediate cases using precedents. It is a good example of how customary law works within a stateless society and is a fair approximation of what is thought of as natural law...
  
   (Somalia
  Somalia
  Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
  
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