Polity Atlas
Article

Property Rights in Celtic Irish Law

Joseph R. Peden · Journal of Libertarian Studies 1(2), 81–95 · 1977

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Type
Article
Author
Joseph R. Peden
Accessed
2026-09-01
Reliability notes
Full text hosted by the Mises Institute. Reprinted in Anarchy and the Law (Routledge, 2017), pp. 565–585, doi:10.4324/9781315082349-35. Peden was a historian at Baruch College writing from a libertarian standpoint.

Claims citing this source

3 claims
EstablishedEarly Irish law was expounded by a professional class of jurists (brehons) rather than enacted by kings, and judgments were enforced through sureties and distraint of property rather than by public officers.DisputedGaelic Ireland was a functioning example of a stateless, polycentric legal order based on private property and voluntary enforcement.EstablishedEnglish authorities tried to stop settlers using Irish law in the Statutes of Kilkenny (1366), but brehon law remained in use in Gaelic and Gaelicised lordships until the Tudor conquest, and brehons survived among the Irish until the early seventeenth century.