CCIV20120

Learning Outcomes:

1. familiarity with the legal tradition in medieval Ireland (c. 700 - 1700 CE).
2. basic knowledge of the textual sources of early Irish law and aspects of the society regulated by legal institutions.
3. deeper understanding of how early Irish society functioned in everyday life.

Indicative Module Content:

Week 1 (Mon, Jan 18, 4pm) Introduction
Week 1 (Wed, Jan 20, 2pm) The social and political environment
Week 2 (Mon, Jan 25, 4pm) The history of early Irish law texts
Week 2 (Wed, Jan 27, 2pm) Judges and jurists
Week 3 (Mon, Feb 1, 4pm) Types of law texts
Week 3 (Wed, Feb 3, 2pm) late medieval legal families and the production of legal manuscripts
Week 4 (Mon, Feb 5, 4pm) Legal manuscripts, their format, contents, characteristics
Week 4 (Wed, Feb 10, 2pm) The later fate of early Irish law
Week 5 (Mon, Feb 15, 4pm) Main features of dispute settlement in early Ireland
Week 5 (Wed, Feb 17, 2pm) 1st discussion and research-skill
Week 6 (Jan, Feb 22, 4pm) Law of status: Críth Gablach (I)
Week 6 (Wed, Feb 24, 2pm) Law of status: Críth Gablach (II)
Week 7 (Mon, Mar 1, 4pm) Marriage and children (I)
Week 7 (Wed, Mar 3, 2pm) Marriage and children (II), 2nd discussion
Week 8 (Mon, Mar 22, 4pm) Status of women
Week 8 (Wed, Mar 24, 2pm) kinship structure
Week 9 (Mon, Mar 29, 4pm) Law of contract
Week 9 (Wed, Mar 31, 2pm) Law of tort
Week 10 (Mon, Apr 5, 4pm) Sick-maintenance and medicine
Week 10 (Wed, Apr 7, 2pm) Living with your neighbours
Week 11 (Mon, Apr 12, 4pm) Bechbretha
Week 11 (Wed, Apr 14, 2pm) Procedures
Week 12 (Mon, Apr 19, 4pm) Law and literature
Week 12 (Wed, Apr 21, 2pm) summary and 3rd discussion

Student Effort Hours:

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

Learning will mostly take the form of structured lectures, supported by group discussion and on-line resources

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.

Module Requisites and Incompatibles

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy

 

Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

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Binchy, D. A. ‘The Date and Provenance of Uraicecht Becc’. Ériu 18 (1958): 44–54.
Binchy, D. A. ‘Distraint in Irish Law’. Celtica 10 (1973): 22–71.
Breatnach, Liam. ‘Canon Law and Secular Law in Early Ireland: The Significance of Bretha Nemed’. Peritia 3 (1984): 439–59.
Breatnach, Liam. ‘Lawyers in Early Ireland’. In Brehons, Serjeants and Attorneys: Studies in the History of the Irish Legal Profession, edited by Daire Hogan and W. N. Osborough, 1–13. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1990.
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Breatnach, Liam. The Early Irish Law Text Senchas Már and the Question of Its Date. E. C. Quiggin Memorial Lectures 13. Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, 2011.
Breatnach, Liam. ‘The Glossing of the Early Irish Law Tracts’. In Grammatica, Gramadach and Gramadeg: Vernacular Grammar and Grammarians in Medieval Ireland and Wales, edited by Deborah Hayden and Paul Russell, 113–32. Studies in the History of the Language Science 125. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing, 2016.
Carey, John. ‘An Edition of the Pseudo-Historical Prologue to the Senchas Már’. Ériu 45 (1994): 1–32.
Charles-Edwards, T. M. ‘Early Irish Law’. In Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí (Ed.), A New History of Ireland, Vol. 1, Prehistoric & Early Medieval Ireland, 331–70. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Davies, Wendy. ‘Charter-Writing and Its Uses in Early Medieval Celtic Societies’. In Pryce, Huw (Ed.), Literacy in Medieval Celtic Societies, 99–112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
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Kelly, Fergus. A Guide to Early Irish Law. Early Irish Law Series 3. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988.
Kelly, Fergus. Early Irish Farming. Early Irish Law Series, v. 4. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1997.
Kelly, Fergus. ‘Texts and Transmissions: The Law-Texts’. In Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: Texts and Transmissions = Irland Und Europa Im Früheren Mittelalteren: Texte Und Überlieferung, edited by Próinséas Ní Chatháin and Michael Richter, 230–42. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002.
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Ó Corráin, Donnchadh, Liam Breatnach, and Aidan Breen. ‘The Laws of the Irish’. Peritia 3 (1984): 382–438.
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Qiu, Fangzhe. ‘Manuscript Contexts of Early Irish Law Tracts: A Case Study on Uraicecht Becc’. Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 35 (2015): 150–71.
Sharpe, Richard. ‘Dispute Settlement in Medieval Ireland: A Preliminary Inquiry’. In Davies, Wendy and Paul Fouracre Eds., The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe, 169–89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.