composition (law)

composition in ancient and medieval law, a sum of money paid by a guilty party as satisfaction to the family of the person who was injured or killed. Failure to make the payment might justify retaliation in kind against the offender or his family. In earliest times, the payment was made as a result of a mutual agreement between the parties, but later it was imposed by law. In many societies the amount paid varied according to the rank of the person injured or slain. Composition reflected a transition from a system of feuds or blood revenge (see vendetta ) to one where socially dangerous acts are primarily a concern of the state rather than of private persons and their families alone. The exaction of the payment recognized the outrage to the person and the family as the prime offense, but it tended to discourage disorder by providing a substitute for retributive killing or other violence. When, in addition to composition, a fine had to be paid to the state, the dangerous act approached the modern conception of a crime (see criminal law ). This institution was known in all Germanic cultures, including Anglo-Saxon England, and was widespread in many parts of the world. It is still practiced in certain Middle Eastern countries. An example of composition is wergild [Old Eng.,=man's price], the payment made by a murderer to the family of a murdered person. Wergild was often paid to the king for loss of a subject and to the lord of the manor for the loss of a vassal as well as to the family of the deceased. The term composition is also used to refer to an agreement between an insolvent debtor and his creditor, whereby the creditor for some consideration, such as an immediate payment of a portion of the debt, waives the remainder and considers his claim satisfied.

composition, an agreement compounded between various parties, refers to the commutation of coyne and livery (for the upkeep of bastard feudal armies) and cess (for the upkeep of government troops) into permanent taxes in the last quarter of the 16th century. The idea of universal commutation was devised by Edmund Tremayne, Sidney's private secretary, as a means of demilitarizing the lordships, promoting law and order, and making the civil and military establishment self‐sufficient, and was advocated as a panacea by Sidney himself when he entered his third deputyship in 1575. Sidney tried to blackmail the Pale by demanding a huge cess which he offered to commute to £2,134, a mere £9 per ploughland. The Palesmen refused to pay and sent representatives to court. Sidney, having obtained regional compositions in Connacht and Munster, dispatched an official delegation to London. The Pale's eventual agreement to a one‐year composition of £2,000 instead of a permanent tax was a pyrrhic victory for Sidney.

In the 1585–6 parliament Perrot wanted a total composition of £3,000, the equal rating of ploughlands, and an agreement between land‐lords and tenants. He gained momentum from his success in Connacht but in the end had to be satisfied with £2,000 negotiated outside parliament, which favoured the Palesmen by spreading the burden to other parts of Leinster. The debate over composition is critical as it involved the state's right to taxation and the subject's right to consent.

Hiram Morgan