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Lex Innocentium (697 AD): Adomnán of Iona – father of Western jus in bello
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2020
Abstract
This article is concerned with an Irish law dating from 697 AD, called Lex Innocentium or the Law of the Innocents. It is also known as Cáin Adomnáin, being named after Adomnán (d. 704), ninth Abbot of Iona, who was responsible for its drafting and promulgation. The law was designed to offer legislative protection to women, children, clerics and other non-arms-bearing people, primarily, though not exclusively, in times of conflict. Today, the laws of war fall into two categories: those attempting to regulate when it is lawful or just to go to war, now called jus ad bellum, and those attempting to limit the awful effects of war by stipulating how it should be properly conducted (for instance, in providing for non-combatant immunity), now called jus in bello. By proscribing the killing and injuring of non-arms-bearing people, Lex Innocentium is an in bello law, and by virtue of its being the first known such law, Adomnán, its author, is the father of Western jus in bello.
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- Selected articles on international humanitarian law and humanitarian action
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- International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 101 , Issue 911: Children and war , August 2019 , pp. 715 - 735
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- Copyright © icrc 2020
References
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52 J. W. Houlihan, above note 5, Chap. 5.
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58 It is thought that the ruined church in Church Lane, Birr, is the location of the early monastery. See Caimin O'Brien, Stories from a Sacred Landscape: Croghan Hill to Clonmacnoise, Offaly County Council, Offaly, 2006, p. 73.
59 T. M. Charles-Edwards, “Early Irish Law”, above note 32, p. 336, n. 28.
60 A beautifully scripted and decorated manuscript, bound in leather and written on vellum, containing the terms of the law, is housed in Birr public library and is available for public viewing. It was made by a local artist, Margaret Maher, under the tutelage of calligrapher, Timothy O'Neill, on the occasion of the 1,300th anniversary of the promulgation of Cáin Adomnáin in 1997 and was intended to replicate, as far as possible, how a written manuscript of the law would have looked in 697.
61 M. Ní Dhonnchadha (trans.), above note 50, p. 62.
62 “For-tá forus inna Cána-sae Adomnáin bithcáin for clérchu ocus banscála ocus maccu encu co-mbat ingníma fri guin duine ocus co-mbat inbuithi fri tuaith ocus con-festar a n-immérgi.” See P. P. Ó Néill and D. N. Dumville (eds and trans.), above note 50, p. 37.
63 For Adomnán's inclusion of penitents among his innocents, see J. E. Fraser, above note 11, p. 98.
64 Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha (ed. and trans.), “An Edition of Cáin Adomnáin”, unpublished PhD thesis, University College, Cork, 1992, p. 24.
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69 M. Ní Dhonnchadha (trans.), above note 50, pp. 62–63.
70 It should be noted that Ní Dhonnchadha's translation reads “wounds and kills”, whereas Meyer, Márkus and Ó Néill/Dumville all read “wounds or slays (kills)”. Ní Dhonnchadha explains her wording by pointing out that the penalties refer to death, not to injury (above note 64, p. 214). The text in Old Irish reads “Nech gonus ocus marbus…”. It is easier to make sense of the provision following Ní Dhonnchadha.
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73 For a detailed discussion of the relevant vernacular Irish text, see J. W. Houlihan, above note 5, Chap. 3.
74 See Ibid., Chap. 5, for further details.
75 M. Ní Dhonnchadha (trans.), above note 50, pp. 64–65, for both paragraphs 41 and 42.
76 There may be some question about this. While eDIL (the electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language) would suggest that the word used in the text, ro-marbthar, would translate as “has been slain”, and this is followed by both Meyer and Ó Néill/Dumville, Ní Dhonnchadha prefers “has been killed” (above note 64, p. 230), as does Márkus, thus enabling a distinction to be made between paragraphs 41 and 42.
77 F. Kelly, above note 29, p. 126.
78 M. Ní Dhonnchadha, above note 45, p. 22. Payment of the éraic for the killing of women is mentioned in the law tracts: see, for instance, F. Kelly, above note 29, pp. 78, n. 79, 134, n. 71.
79 If it was already payable, this new fine would be in addition.
80 Paragraphs 16–27. For an English translation of these paragraphs, see G. Markús (trans.), above note 11, pp. 12–16.
81 J. E. Fraser, above note 11, p. 95.
82 Up to the enactment of the Control of Dogs Act in 1986, common law provided no compensation for a person injured by a dog unless the animal had demonstrated a propensity for viciousness on some prior occasion. See Vere Heuston, Robert Francis, Salmond on the Law of Torts, 13th ed., Sweet and Maxwell, London, 1961, pp. 607–608Google Scholar.
83 M. Ní Dhonnchadha (ed. and trans.), above note 64, p. 230.
84 M. Ní Dhonnchadha (trans.), above note 50, p. 65.
85 M. Ní Dhonnchadha, above note 45, p. 27. It should be noted that Ní Dhonnchadha's translation reads “for the wounding” and she is followed by Ó Néill/Dumville (above note 50, p. 44), whereas Meyer translates as “slaying” (above note 50, p. 29), as does Márkus (above note 11, p. 22). The sentence in the text reads “Ochtmath caich bicc ocus caich móir do muntir Adomnán di guin clérech ocus mac n-ennac” (P. P. Ó Néill and D. N. Dumville (eds and trans.), above note 50, p. 45). From the point of view of making sense of the paragraph, “slaying” seems correct on the basis that “wounding” is covered for women, clerics and children in the second sentence and it is already clear that the entire fine and not one eighth is payable to Adomnán (paragraphs 41 and 42) for the killing of women, hence their exclusion from the first sentence. See F. Kelly, above note 29, pp. 131–133, for wounding generally.
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89 Ibid., pp. 240–241; G. Márkus (trans.), above note 11, p. 23, n. 45.
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91 M. Ní Dhonnchadha (ed. and trans.), above note 64, p. 243; and see F. Kelly, above note 29, pp. 219–221, on setting adrift generally.
92 See M. Ní Dhonnchadha, above note 45, pp. 28–31, for a discussion of Adomnán's attitude to women. For women-specific provisions in IHL, see Krill, Françoise, “The Protection of Women in International Humanitarian Law”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 25, No. 249, 1985CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: https://international-review.icrc.org/articles/protection-women-international-humanitarian-law.
93 See J. W. Houlihan, above note 5, Chap. 7, for a detailed analysis.
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95 C. Wickham, above note 17, pp. 139–149.
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103 Ibid., p. 11.
104 M. Ní Dhonnchadha (ed. and trans.), above note 64, p. 33.
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107 A quick glance through P. P. Ó Néill and D. N. Dumville (eds and trans.), above note 50, where attention is drawn to the differences in the two surviving texts, the omissions and mistakes, makes this clear.
108 F. Kelly, above note 29, pp. 1–2.