laws from the descriptions of Roman observers and from laws that were written slightly aft er the ancient period.. Th e best evidence of Celtic legal codes comes from Ireland’s Bre-hon l
Trang 1laws from the descriptions of Roman observers and from
laws that were written slightly aft er the ancient period Th e
best evidence of Celtic legal codes comes from Ireland’s
Bre-hon laws, which were fi rst written down in the 600s c.e but
are presumed to have come from ancient Celtic laws
Histo-rians think that these laws may have developed among Celtic
peoples in Europe during the Bronze Age, between 2300 and
900 b.c.e Legal experts memorized the laws and transmitted
them orally over the years Aft er many years of study, these
experts became skilled at interpreting the law, advising
rul-ers, and arbitrating disputes (Th e name Brehon is an
Angli-cization of the Irish word for “judge.”)
Celtic law divided people into fi ve social classes At the
top were kings, followed by nobles Free people who owned
property formed a third class and free people without
prop-erty a fourth Th e fi ft h class consisted of slaves and other
nonfree people Th ese ranks indicated how people had to
behave with respect to other members of society Kings
and nobles owned their own property and paid no rent to
anyone Men of the third class, freemen with property, did
not own land but did own cattle and other movable goods,
which allowed them to function as the lowest level of chiefs
Th e vast majority of people fell into the bottom two classes
Th e fourth class rented land from nobles, to whom they
owed allegiance in war Some members of the fi ft h class
were slaves, many of them captured from other tribes;
oth-ers were not slaves but did not hold all the rights of full
members of the tribe
In addition to defi ning social classes, Celtic laws
orga-nized people into groups that served as the basis for
distribut-ing land Th e family was the smallest group Th e clan was a
larger group of relatives descended from a common ancestor
A tribe consisted of several clans likewise descended from a
common ancestor Each tribe and clan was governed by its
own chief, who in turn owed allegiance to higher rulers
Al-legiance took the form of yearly payments of property and
military assistance
Celtic laws did away with the ancient practice of
retalia-tion for crimes and replaced them with a scheme of
compen-sation designed to end disputes peacefully If a person harmed
another, the victim or the victim’s family would bring the case
before a chief and a legal expert Th e legal expert would
lis-ten to the facts and decide the appropriate punishment Every
crime merited a specifi c compensation; cutting off someone’s
hand earned a smaller fi ne than murdering someone would
Th ere were several levels of court; petty disputes went to the
courts of local chiefs, while major disputes might go all the
way to a king A party who brought a case to court had to
bring at least two witnesses to testify on her behalf Social
rank was important in courts; a person of lower rank could
not always testify against someone of higher class
One notable aspect of ancient Celtic law is its near
ab-sence of capital punishment for crimes Th e only time Celtic
laws recommended death was when a murderer failed to pay
the full amount of the specifi ed fi ne Celtic kings and chiefs
did execute criminals, but this practice was done outside the legal setting Methods of execution included hanging and drowning
Germanic tribes did not begin to compile formal legal codes until the very end of the Roman Empire in the 400s For almost all of the ancient period they governed themselves according to custom, passed orally from generation to gen-eration Th ese laws specifi ed the treatment of criminals and the settlement of disputes
German tribes assembled periodically to hold a festi-val that in mediefesti-val times was called the Th ing, which was
an occasion to trade, exchange spouses, and settle disputes People who believed they had been wronged would wait until
a major gathering and then bring their grievance before the king, who acted as a judge Both parties were allowed to speak and bring witnesses to back them Th e king would then is-sue a judgment If all went well, both parties would abide by the agreement, and the dispute would be ended Sometimes people settled disputes themselves by force, but there was community pressure to follow the king’s judgment and settle matters peacefully If the king summoned a person to appear
at the Th ing and he failed to come, he would be fi ned Any party who summoned another person to appear because of a dispute and then himself failed to appear would have to pay a
fi ne to the person he had summoned
German laws covered many diff erent types of crime Stealing cattle was a serious off ense, and penalties varied de-pending on the value of the cattle stolen; a bull owned by the king merited a higher fi ne than a bull that serviced only the cows of a single herd owned by an ordinary man Stealing an object that lay outside a house was not as serious as breaking into a house to steal something Merely breaking into a house without stealing anything was also a crime, especially if the thief broke a lock to get in Rape, assault, insult, and mur-der were all criminal off enses punishable by fi nes Tribes set
fi nes according to the value of the victim Killing a pregnant woman merited a higher fi ne than killing a woman past her childbearing years If a murderer concealed his victim in an attempt to hide his crime, the punishment was greater than
if he did not A murderer who did not have enough money to pay the fi ne was expected to ask his relatives and friends for help If he still could not raise enough money, he might be executed Germanic inheritance law favored male heirs If a father died and left sons, they would inherit his property If
he had no sons, then his property would go to his parents, his siblings, or his relatives on his father’s side In most cases, the inheritance could not go to a woman
During the 400s c.e., Germanic groups began compil-ing codes of laws Th e Visigothic leaders Th eodoric I, Th oris-mund, and Th eodoric II all created bodies of law that they used to govern their people, but they did not write these laws down Th e Visigothic king Euric (d 484 c.e.) made the fi rst compilation of Visigothic law in 471, gathering the laws of his predecessors and arranging them in a single volume His laws regulated only disputes involving Goths or Goths and
laws and legal codes: Europe 627