Celtic Law : A Short Summary
Filed by Aine MacDermot
LAWS DEALING WITH PROPERTY
The main items of property mentioned in the laws are land, buildings, livestock, domestic and farm utensils, weapons, clothes and ornaments. (KELLY 1988, 99).
LAND
Land is probably the most important kind of property in Irish law, as someone owning no land cannot be legally independent. The basic unit of land usually mentioned in the law texts is called a “cumal”, a legal term that literally means “female slave” but came to be used as a legal unit for different purposes as in this case. Such a cumal of land probably had the size of about 13.85 hectares (about 34.224 acres), and had a value of between 8 dry cows for bogland and 24 milch cows for best arable land.
Most of the farmland seems to have been “fintiu” (kin-land), which was divided between all adult male kinmembers to be farmed. Every one of these farms as an individual, but some control about what he does with this land remains with the kin, e.g. he can’t sell it or parts of it without permission of the kin.
If somebody has acquired further land (because of successful farming or success in a profession or whatever reason else, as long it is legally acquired and not kinland of his own kin), he may dispose of it according to his wishes much easier. Still, the kin retains a right to a certain share of it (2/3rds to 1/3rd depending on why the owner could acquire it), which becomes part of the kinland at his death.
A certain part of the territory of each túath is attached to the function of kingship, it becomes the property of each king when he becomes king.
The land owned by a man is usually inherited by his sons, the process of dividing taking place in the way that the youngest son divides the holdings in equal parts, and then the eldest has the first choice, the second eldest the second, and so on. Every son from a legal (i.e. approved by the kin) marriage has a right to get his share from this, so sons from second wives and concubines do inherit as much as those of the primary wife do. Sons of illegal or unusual marriages (e.g. if a banchomarbae marries a man from a foreign country) usually don’t inherit, or at the best get a smaller share than “legal” children.
In some cases kin land may also be redistributed amongst the kin, giving a greater share to a more prolific branch of the kin from a less prolific with large holdings. However, a minimum of land worth 14 cumals (the requirements of property for a bóaire) would still go to any heir and only what remained after that would be redistributed to other groups of the kin. Female inheritance of land only was possible in case that there were no sons of the deceased. Under certain conditions, adoption could also qualify somebody for inheritance of land.
Cooperative farming between neighbours was usual in case of such farmers who had only little property, the most common form of this is co-ploughing, but also joint-herding was common. Such cooperations were to be bound by contracts (contracts will be explained in detail later).
Additionally, there existed some other rights on land. Private ownership of land is something very important in Irish Law, being extended even to mines and fishing-rights, but still there were some “common” rights on land, such as collecting enough wood to make a fire, a quick dip of a fishing net into a stream, collecting a handful of hazel-nuts if one is hungry etc., as long as one is a person of legal standing. Probably there were also some limited rights to hunt on someone’s land, however, the owner of the land in any case got a share of everything hunted on his land, with the share greater if he had not given permission to the hunter.
Additionally to this, landholders had more expressed rights on the properties of their immediate neighbours. If necessary, he can cut a mill-race through the neighbours land, provided he pays compensation for the value of the land. Where there was no other access, he was allowed to drive his cattle, if properly supervised, across his neighbour’s land. Even the problem of the fruit of a neighbour’s tree falling on one’s land is regulated.
Doing damage to the land of somebody else is considered as an offense, be it made by a person or by domestic animals. In the case this happens, the offender (the owner in case of animals) has to pay a fine.
BUILDINGS
There are a number of laws that treat buildings and damage to them. First, a certain of ones house and a certain number of ones buildings is required for certain social strata of society. The typical bóaire, for instance, has a dwelling-house of at least 27 feet diameter, and outhouse of 15 feet, a kiln, a barn, a pig-sty, a calf-pen and a sheep-pen.
Damage to any part of the house brings about a heavy penalty, starting with such offenses as crossing a man’s courtyard without his permission, or opening the door of his house or looking into it unbidden. There are also detailed fines for damage to any part of the house, regulations that tell with how much damage to the door-post of the front or back-door has to be compensated, and so on.
MOVABLE PROPERTY
As with the other kinds of property already mentioned, there are also some minimum requirements in moveable property to keep up a certain social status. As such, we have a very complete description of what was expected to be in the possession of a bóaire, starting from the tools for agriculture, over his animals, to his and his wife’s clothing. Especially noted were some parts of the equipment, like ornaments, weapons, clothing and vessels which were usually used as pledges (for pledges see later).
Moveable property could be transferred in a number of ways, but almost all of these are contracts. However, a few words should be said here on Irish currency. Through all of the law texts, a very complex system of currency is used, basically because there was no “fixed” currency in the way of coins in Ireland before the 11th century AD, the law texts however were mainly taken down in this period where more than one currency system existed. However, as in fact all offenses against the law can be compensated through payment of fines, currency units are frequently used throughout the texts.
CUMAL
As already noted elsewhere, the basic meaning of Cumal was “female slave”. It is, however, in the law texts most often used as a unit of value. It can be assumed that originally it were really female slaves that had to be given, but in the time the texts were written down we can be pretty sure that this was no longer in practice, but instead a payment of the equivalent value in other currency was made.
CATTLE
Cattle probably was the main kind of currency used, and is also the predominant kind of currency used in the law texts. The basic unit here is the milch cow (lulgach or bó mlicht), usually accompanied by her calf. 2/3rds of her value is the in-calf cow (bó inláeg), the three year-old dry heifer (samaisc) is half the value of the milch cow, the two year-old heifer (colpthach) 1/3rd, the yearling heifer (dairt) 1/4th and finally the yearling bullock (dartaid) at 1/8th. Below this, values are given in sheep, fleeces or sacks of grain.
(Silver) OUNCE
Even though coins as currency seem to have been rare, two terms have been taken over from Latin to the Irish currency system: ungae (from Latin uncia “ounce”) which is made up from 24 screpul (from Latin scripulus “scruple”).
SÉT
Usually used as the unit for honour-prices below the level of kings, sét (treasure, jewel, valuable) is also used in fines.
RELATION OF THE CURRENCIES
The usual relation between those currencies seem to have been: 1 cumal = 3 milch cows = 3 ounces of silver = 6 séts. However, there also exist some texts that have slight variations of these relations, and some even have strong deviances like in Cáin Aicillne, where the relation of 1 cumal = 20 séts is given.
LOST PROPERTY
Movable property of course can get lost. Basically Irish laws deal with lost property in a way that the closer it is found to the home of the one who lost it, the smaller is the share of the one who finds it. The share of the finder is increased if the item is found in a frequented or likely place. The finder of lost property had to proclaim his find throughout the territory.
If property is deposited (by whatever means and whatever reason) on the land of somebody else, the owner of this land is entitled to “autsad” (storage-fee?). The same principle is applied in Bechbretha, where the owner of a land on which a swarm of known origin settles is entitled to ownership of the bees or a share of their produce.
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