Brehon

Brehon, Brehon Laws [cf. OIr. breithem; ModIr. breitheamh, breitheamain (pl.), judge, arbiter; ScG breitheamh]. The brehon was a legal authority in early Ireland. His role appears to have derived from the vates described by Roman commentators, as did the fili, ‘poet, seer’. Whatever his function in other societies, the brehon was not a judge in Ireland, as the administration of justice and preservation of law and order were responsibilities of the king. The brehon's function resembled that of the Roman jurisconsult; he was a specialist who knew, preserved, and to some degree developed the law from pre-Christian and Christian traditions. The occupation of brehon became hereditary, passed on to pupils or literary foster-sons. Exalted members of Scottish clans who served as brehons bore the title ‘brieve’; in later times their functions were served by the doomster or dempster.

The treatises commonly known as Brehon Laws, some possibly as old as the 6th century, were textbooks. They were only law records, not collections of case law or statute law. A small number of famous decisions, usually in a legendary setting, are preserved in the texts, but there was no official registration of judgments. Important among these texts was the Senchas Már [Great Tradition]; see edition of some texts in Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 14 (1923) 334–94; 15 (1924), 238–76, 302–76; 16 (1926), 167–230; 18 (1929–30), 353–408. Many laws were attributed to the 7th-century warrior Cenn Fáelad. Brehons continued to practise their law in Ireland until the reign of James I (1603–25).

See Ancient Laws of Ireland (6 vols., Dublin and London, 1865–1901); Corpus iuris Hibernici, ed. Daniel A. Binchy (6 vols., Dublin, 1978); Laurence Ginnel, The Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook (London, 1844; Dublin, 1917); John MacNeill, Early Irish Law and Institutions (Dublin, 1934); D. A. Binchy (ed.), Studies in Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1936); Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1988). See also HYWEL DDA.