Bechbretha, meaning bee judgements in Old Irish, is an early Irish legal tract on beekeeping dating to roughly the middle of the 7th century, transmitted as the twenty first text of the Senchas Mór, the great collection of early Irish law. It functioned as a professional guide for judges, covering relations between beekeepers and neighboring landowners, injuries caused by bees, ownership of swarms and the theft of bees. It is unusual among early Irish legal tracts for citing a historical figure, the Ulster king Congal Cáech, rather than a mythical example, and its underlying rules are thought to predate Christian influence in Ireland. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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Era
Era (category) Legal Status
Legal Status (category)Historical / No Longer in Force 1 Connections
In Legal System
Source Bechbretha (Wikipedia)
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1. Bechbretha (Wikipedia)
Lead section
It has been dated to the middle of the 7th century CE.
Lead section, legal-status
It has been dated to the middle of the 7th century CE. The author of Bechbretha may also have been the author of two other early Irish legal tracts, Coibes Uisci Thairdne and Bretha im Fhuillema Gell.
- In Group: Brehon Law, lead paragraph identifies the early Irish legal tract
In Legal System: Irish Law, Wikipedia lead paragraph
The Bechbretha (Old Irish for "Bee-judgements") is an early Irish legal tex
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