Judicial Oaths in Ancient Ireland. to do as he pleased with his own. He made the law for his family as his caprice or sense of justice dictated. How this irresponsible, petty ruler became bound in a mesh of cus toms, traditions and laws, forms an interest ing chapter in the history of the growth of public law. Religion, love of children, ties of blood relationship, ownership of land, self-defence,—these were some of the influ ences that gradually built up a system of customary law which could not be broken, even by the theoretically autonomous, irre sponsible patriarch, and in the earliest re corded history of the patriarchal system in the Bible, we find that the patriarch no longer enjoyed the unrestricted right to dis pose of the property of the family. Custom had limited his powers. Once established, this conception of the inalienability of the family property became a fundamental principle of law; and, in the Mosaic code, we find it often referred to, and several times the subject of special legislation. The institu
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tion of the Jubilee was intended to check a tendency which had arisen to dispose of the family inheritance to strangers by providing (Leviticus XXV, 10-23) that in the year of the Jubilee the land should revert to the family which had originally owned it. This law is of comparatively late origin, when the notions of family solidarity were begin ning to break down after Israel had ceased to be a federation of tribes, and had become a nation with world problems to solve. Com merce and international intercourse were working for the liberation of the individual from ansieot social and legal regulations, but the conservative instincts of the people were reactionary; and the law expressing this con servatism sought to prevent the broader union of men founded on a basis of national territorial possession from destroying the ancient family solidarity which had been preserved largely through the restraints on alienation of the family estates.
JUDICIAL OATHS II I ANCIENT IRELAND. By Joskph M.elements Sullivan.of nature, namely, the sun, moon, THE history and origin of the judicial oath is a subject involved in almost hopeless obscurity. Owing to a lack of pro found knowledge of ancient and modern Gaelic, the translators of the Brehon Laws furnish the legal antiquary with no knowl edge of the history and origin of the judicial oath in ancient Ireland. The oath itself, and the manner of administering it, are not stated in the translation of the Brehon Laws. We are certain that our Irish ancestors did swear, and were accustomed to the use of oaths in judicial proceedings. We also know that before the introduction of Christianity into Ireland, the Druids swore on solemn occa sions by invoking or calling to witness the
wind, dew, crops, and the heavenly planets. After the introduction of Christianity into Ireland by St. Patrick, we find that oaths were administered on holy relics, sacred shrines, and on bishops' crosiers. Oaths taken on holy relics and at religious shrines were considered very solemn and binding. Again, the place where the oath was admin istered, as, for instance, an oath taken at the altar or in the temple, was supposed to give it additional value. There was also a triple oath which was administered in this manner, namely, the affirmant swore first standing, then lying, then sitting. I have been unable to learn
