The early Irish law of pledging

Thesis

This thesis investigates the law of pledging as presented in the early Irish laws and draws connections to its relations within the overall system of security. At the centre of my research stands the question what pledges Irish law recognised and how their application was determined, so as to provide a paradigm for the law of pledging in its entirety. A pledge is usually a movable, material object of symbolic and economic worth that is given to another person as a security deposit for an outstanding obligation.

The main findings of this thesis are a first paradigm of the law of pledging and a methodological and contextual categorisation of all types of pledges that opens doors for future research into property law. The combined discussion of pledges, hostages and sureties offers the reader insight into a triple method of security and its differences. Moreover, the close relationship between given pledges and distrained pledges is unravelled for the first time. Of further note is the comparative investigation into pledging. Therein, the reader is presented with how pledges are used in Welsh, Salic, Lombard, Visigothic, and Burgundian law. The objective is to offer the reader a view into the possibilities of pledging and to provide a framework against which the Irish evidence can be probed, which reveals how sophisticated and attentive to detail the Irish laws were. Finally, a translation of the primary source text Bretha im Ḟuillemu Gell (Judgements concerning Pledge-interests) is made available to the reader in the Appendix.

Authors: Bemmer, J

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-2zk2oxyz0
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Irish Legal History; History of Law
• Subjects: Society for Late Antiquity; Irish Law; Celtic; Middle Ages