Ancient Irish Law

I'm impressed with the Brehon laws, the very ancient Irish legal system: equal treatment, education, care of elders and infirmed, establishment of hospitals, for the ranking of poets. Women were only exempted from military service long in the 600s, were equal in property matters, and could divorce (a right regained in Ireland only recently). And there was no sentence of death.

What we know of the original laws was a largely a three-year effort under St. Patrick to codify and christianize them.

The bulk of these laws seem to date to the druidical era - and there was of course serfdom, superstition and other general weirdness. A favorite was the rule of fasting. To collect a debt, you could go to the house of the defendent, and refuse to eat. The defendant was obliged to do the same on pain of social exclusion - the incentive to settle is obvious. But the thrust of many of these laws is culturally egalitarian, and it is striking to see ideas so ancient assertable in the U.S. today.

It's notable, even relevant, that the Brehon laws were used in some form until the 17th century in Ireland, Scotland and Wales- notable in that our system of law is based on English law going back to the Danelaw. While English law prescribed death as punishments, Irish law issued fines. It begs the question: does a civil society really require severe punishment to function? The Brehon laws seem to understand that a just, socially gracious and merciful legal system build a more civil society.


http://www.duhaime.org/LegalResources/LawMuseum/LawArticle-523/250-Brehon-Code-of-Ireland.aspx

From this article:

"While the Brehon administered the law, the aggregate wisdom of nine leading representatives was necessary to originate a law or to abolish it. The nine needed for the making of a law were the chief, poet, historian, landowner, bishop, professor of literature, professor of law, a noble, and a lay vicar."

How primitive.