Early Irish law
The Brehon Laws ( the judge laws, Irish on Féineachas, Old Irish at Fénechas ) are the old Irish form of civil jurisdiction before the Anglo-Norman occupation of the country. They also form the basis of the British legal system, which is known as case law or common law. The Irish name means Fénechas Law of fine or fènè, ie the free peasantry.
History
The old Irish judge ( Old Irish brithemain, neuirisch breithiúna, therefore Anglicized Brehon ) were free in their opinion as to what made them an influential group. There was a training for judges in law schools. The sentences were handed down orally for centuries before it between 600 and 900 AD, and later, among others were recorded in Dun Cahermacnaughten in The Burren in County Clare. The place was also known as Fort O'Davoranstown because of the specially built accommodation. The O'Davoran clan ( Uí Dhábhoireann ) entertained here one of the important laws schools in medieval Ireland.
The cases were referred to in the oldest dialect of the Irish language, Berla Feini written, which was already difficult to read at the time of writing down, so that the writers had to be specially instructed. Commentators have frequently struggled in their attempts to explain the archaic texts. The most important records are the Senchus Mór and the Book of Acaill. The original of the Senchus Mór was lost. The two Irish scholars O'Donovan and O'Curry, who translated the laws into English in 1670 were, after a lifetime of study capable of doing and in many cases they were not even completely safe to their regret. The translation O'Currys includes 2,906 who O'Donovans 2,491 pages that were published in five volumes. There are still untranslated texts, which have a similar extent.
The continued existence of the independent Irish legal practice was considered by English commentators of the later 16th and 17th centuries such as Edmund Spenser and John Davies as one of the main reasons for the incomplete submission or " civilizing" of Ireland. This assessment was not so far wrong, as the still largely independent Irish legal culture based and symbol of the continued existence of discrimination based on clan rule Irish social constitution ( " coarse fine" ) was. So crimes were typically punished outside the state - jurisdiktiven access between the affected families, so in a way and manner which ran towards the Common Law.
The English poet Edmund Spenser about who lived in Ireland until his expulsion in 1598, argued the early 1590s in his infamous publication " A veue of The Present State of Ireland ," the exercise of the Brehon Law was before the " moral " ( " customes " ) and the adherence to Catholicism ( " religion " ), the first vice of the native population. To break these " vices", was a prerequisite for the establishment of British rule on the island and the raising of the Irish culture. To the extent in which the British administration in Ireland during the most conflict-ridden 17th century gained the upper hand over the Irish Lords, the Brehon Laws should actually be pushed back in the 17th century.
A safe inaccurate tradition says that St. Patrick and King Lear in the year 438 AD commissioned a recording, into the Christian positions were incorporated by a revision of St. Patrick.
Source
- Ancient laws of Ireland. Volume 2: Senchus Mor, Part II: Law of distress ( completed ). Laws of hostage - sureties, fosterage, saerstock tenure, daerstock tenure, and of social connexions. Published under direction of the commissioners for publishing the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland. Thom et al, Dublin et al 1869.