The Sacred Nature of Trees: Incorprating Lessons from Brehon Law into Rights of Nature Initatives

• Date: 01 January 2023
• Author: Niamh Guiry

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e Sacred Nature of Trees: Incorprating Lessons

from Brehon Law into Rights of Nature Initatives

NIAMH GUIRY*

Introduction

We are living through a time of unprecedented ecological degradation and a

global climate crisis. e ‘human-induced changes’ to the Earth’s fundamental

systems and life cycles mark a new era of geological time known by some as the

Anthropocene Epoch.1 Such a ‘socio-ecological crisis’ requires a ‘radical’ revolution

of our value system and how we as a society live, behave, produce, and consume.2

Some contend that law is a reection of existing societal values.3 If one takes the

former assertion to be true, this raises some questions as to what values our legal

system is currently reecting amidst ongoing national and global environmental

breakdown, and furthermore, whether the law’s ability to embody societal values

is still being maintained in this context. Recognition of the value of ecological

functions is an essential component of conservation,4 and arguably an important

mechanism to enhance environmental law and alter how we as a species understand

and interact with the natural environment. In light of these considerations, it may

be worth looking back to a time when legal systems emulated more than purely

economic pursuits or anthropogenic needs. In this instance, this paper uses early

Irish law (colloquially known as Brehon law) as a tool to explore the legal, social,

and cultural value bestowed upon trees in ancient Irish society before considering

how these insights could be used to inform the modern-day Rights of Nature

movement in Ireland so as to build a stronger societal and legal recognition of the

multi-dimensional value of nature.

Firstly, Section I of this paper introduces the Brehon law system of early Ireland.

Following this, the environmental considerations found in the Old Irish tree-list

of Brehon law are explored in Section II. e social and cultural signicance of

trees is also illustrated in Section II, highlighting the normative alignments of

Brehon law with ancient mythological stories and the spiritual practices of the time

* I would like to sincerely thank the Editorial Board and anonymous reviewers for their comments on

earlier dras of this article, Prof Owen McIntyre and Dr Dug Cubie for their support and feedback

on this article, Dr John Barimo for inspiring my exploration of Brehon Law, and last but not least,

Julián Suárez for sharing his expertise and knowledge of Rights of Nature.

1 Simon L Lewis and Mark A Maslin, ‘Dening the Anthropocene’ (2015) 519 Nature 171, 171.

2 Louis Kotzé, ‘A Global Environmental Constitution for the Anthropocene?’ (2019) 8 Transnational

Environmental Law 11, 12.

3 Stig Jørgensen, Values in Law: Ideas, Principles and Rules (Juristforbundets Forlag København 1978), 7.

4 See John J Piccolo, ‘Intrinsic values in nature: Objective good or simply half of an unhelpful

dichotomy?’ (2017) 37 Journal for Natural Conservation 8.

Incorprating Lessons om Brehon Law into Rights of Nature Initatives 127

before outlining some of the tree considerations that can be found in other ancient

societies. Section III begins by discussing the value and overall conservation status

of trees in contemporary Ireland and examines the existing domestic and European

Union (EU) legislative provisions pertaining to trees. Following this, Section IV

broadly explores a rights-based approach to environmental protection before

considering two recent Rights of Nature developments in Ireland, namely the

Rights of Nature motions passed by Local Authorities and the recommendations

of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. Finally, Section V reects on how

lessons learned from the environmental considerations found in ancient Ireland

could be used to inform local and national Rights of Nature initiatives, some of the

challenges associated with a rights-based approach to environmental protection,

and their potential to be used as a multi-faceted tool in local environmental

decision-making in Ireland.

I. A Brief Overview of Brehon Law

Brehon law, originating from brithemain meaning ‘judge’ or ‘jurist’ in Old Irish,

was Ireland’s early legal system.5 e majority of early Irish law-texts are dated

around the seventh to ninth centuries AD,6 within which two types of law can

be found: Féinechas, which can be translated to ‘e Law of the Irish’, and cáin,

meaning ‘proclaimed law’.7 Described as a ‘legal handbook’, Senchas Már (‘Great

Tradition’) is the principal collection of surviving Brehon law-texts, composed of

approximately forty-seven tracts.8 It is not exactly known when Brehon law was rst

established in Ireland. However, according to ‘linguistic evidence’, these ancient

laws can be, at the very least, dated back to the time known as the Common Celtic

period (c 1000BC).9 Described as belonging to ‘the epoch of Customary Law’,10

Brehon law existed as an oral tradition that was moulded by the established customs

and local practices of the time, with most transcriptions taking place during the

seventh to eighth centuries.11 In light of its historic origins, ancient dialect, and

repeated transcriptions, it should be noted that there are ‘inconsistencies’ in the

literature and translations associated with this early legal framework.12 Today, there

5 Noelle Higgins, ‘e Lost Legal System: Pre-Common Law Ireland and the Brehon Law’ in D.A.

Frenkel (ed), Legal eory Practice and Education, (ATINER 2011), 194.

6 Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies 1988), 1.

7 Fergus Kelly, ‘e Evidence for Consensus in the Irish Law-texts of the Seventh to Ninth Centuries

AD’ (2017) 82 Lectures and Research: Law and Consensus in the Early Middle Ages 117, 125–126.

8 Liam Breatnach, ‘e Early Irish Law Text Senchas Már and the uestion of its Date’ (2011)

E C uiggin Memorial Lectures 13, University of Cambridge, 10 uk/

publications/uiggin/ECQ%20Vol%2013%202011%20Breatnach.pdf> accessed 28 May 2023;

ibid 119.

9 Kelly (n 6) 231.

10 John A Costello, ‘e Leading Principles of the Brehon Laws’ (1913) 2 An Irish uarterly Review

415, 415.

11 Kelly (n 6) 232.

12 ibid 1.