law tracts

law tracts. Most of our knowledge of early Irish law comes from the Old Irish law tracts, mainly composed in the 7th and 8th centuries ad. Some of these tracts have survived in a complete form in later manuscripts (generally of the 14th to 16th centuries), but many are only partially preserved.

The most extensive collection of law tracts is that of the Senchas Már school. This collection is divided into three parts. The first contains tracts on distraint, hostageship, fosterage, lordship, marriage, and the relationship between church and laity. The middle third starts with the Heptads, a collection of miscellaneous legal information arranged in groups of seven. There are also tracts on kinship, the semi‐free classes, bee‐keeping, watermills, theft, and other topics. Most of the last third is lost, but two tracts on illegal injury have survived. There are also fragments of tracts on the law relating to hunting, dogs, and cats.

It has been suggested by D. A. Binchy that some other tracts surviving in legal manuscripts belong to a different school, which had particular associations with the poetical profession. Of special importance in this group are Bretha Nemed toísech and Bretha Nemed déidenach. These lengthy tracts provide much information on the rights and obligations of poets (fili), as well as many other legal matters. There are also law tracts which do not fit into either the postulated Senchas Már or Nemed school. Of particular importance among these is Críth Gablach.

Different styles are used by the authors of the early Irish law tracts. Most of the Senchas Már tracts are in prose, but there are also passages in unrhymed alliterative verse. This style of verse is regular in texts attributed to the Nemed school. Little is known about the authors of the law tracts, but it is likely that they worked in monastic scriptoria: some may have been clerics.

From about the 9th century, the practice arose in the law schools of adding glosses and commentary to the Old Irish tracts. These are mainly explanations or expansions of the original text, and sometimes provide evidence of legal change. In his Corpus iuris Hibernici, Binchy has provided a diplomatic edition (without translation) of practically all the existing law tracts and associated material.

Many law tracts were edited in Ancient Laws of Ireland, i–v (1865–1901), but there are numerous errors of transcription and translation, particularly in the first two volumes. Thurneysen, Binchy, and other scholars have published improved editions of some tracts in the journals Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, Ériu, and Celtica. Two law tracts have been edited in the Early Irish Law Series, and further editions are in preparation.

Bibliography

Binchy, D. A. , Corpus iuris hibernici, i–vi (1978)
Breathnach, L. , Uraicecht na ríar: The Poetic Grades in Early Irish Law (1987)
Charles‐Edwards, T., and and Kelly, F. , Bechbretha: An Old Irish Law‐Tract on Beekeeping (1983)

Fergus Kelly