the standard types of writ then available from the chan-
cery in England for the initation of litigation, with
instructions authorizing the justiciar to issue such writs
in Ireland. Further orders were given in 1234 and 1236
for making available in Ireland particular forms of writ,
and in 1246 the general principle stated that all writs
“of common right” should be available in Ireland.
Mandates were also sent from England to explain spe-
cific legal rules and procedures and instruct that they
be applied in the courts of the lordship. These provide
evidence of a determination that the Irish Common
Law remain close to its English model. Such evidence
ceases in the second half of the thirteenth century. This
does not, however, mean that the courts of the lordship
were now left free to develop their own distinctive law
and custom. It is in this period that, for the first time,
cases started being removed by writs of error from
Irish courts to the court of King’s Bench in England,
where judgments were upheld or overthrown on the
basis of English legal rules. From 1236 onward, leg-
islation enacted for England was also sent to Ireland,
with orders that it be applied there. This ensured that
the Irish Common Law was not left behind at a time
when the English Common Law was being drastically
remodeled by legislation. The last time English legis-
lation was simply sent to Ireland with instructions for
its application was in 1411. The same effect, however,
was achieved (albeit with prior Irish agreement) from
the fourteenth century onward by the adoption or reen-
actment by the Irish parliament of specific items of
existing English legislation. In 1494 to 1495, Poyn-
ings’ Law, enacted by the Irish parliament, authorized
the adoption of all general, public legislation enacted
in England prior to that date.
By 1300, there had also come to be a legal profes-
sion in Ireland that bore a close resemblance to its
English counterpart: a small group of professional
serjeants (specialists in pleading for clients in the
courtroom) practiced in the main royal courts of the
lordship. There was also a separate group of profes-
sional attorneys, whose main responsibilities were in
the preliminary stages of litigation and in briefing the
serjeants, but the surviving evidence does not reveal
how large a group this was. Professional lawyers also
practiced in the city courts in Dublin and in county
courts. Law students traveled to England from Ireland
to learn the law from at least 1287 onward, and from
the 1340s they attended the Inns of Court in London
to do so. However, more elementary legal education
was also available in Ireland, probably in Dublin. The
Irish legal profession failed to establish the monopoly
over the main judicial appointments that the English
legal profession had secured by around 1340. This was
mainly because English lawyers (with no previous
Irish connections) continued to be appointed to serve
as justices in Ireland. The appointment of English jus-
tices to serve in the Irish courts and the education of
the Irish legal elite in England must also have played
a role in ensuring that the Irish Common Law contin-
ued to bear a close resemblance to its English cousin.
Even in the thirteenth century there was some devel-
opment of a distinctive Irish custom within the Com-
mon Law—at least in part from an accommodation
with native Irish law, for example in allowing, in the
case of homicides against native Irishmen, the payment
of compensation (éraic) rather than imposition of the
death penalty. The existence of an independent Irish
parliament with unfettered freedom (prior to
1494–1495) to enact its own legislation also allowed the
development of a body of statutory law modifying the
Common Law, quite distinct from that of England. The
earliest such legislation now known dates from 1278.
PAUL BRANDReferences and Further Reading
Brand, Paul. “The Early History of the Legal Profession in the Lord-
ship of Ireland, 1250–1350” and “Ireland and the Literature of
the Early Common Law.” In Brand, P. The Making of the Com-
mon Law. London and Rio Grande: The Hambledon Press, 1992.
Donaldson, A.G. Some Comparative Aspects of Irish Law. Durham,
N.C. and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1957
Hand, Geoffrey J. English Law in Ireland, 1290–1324. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1967.
See alsoAnglo-Norman-Invasion; Chief Governors;
Courts; Education; Feudalism; Government,
Central; Government, Local; John; March Law;
Parliament; Records, Administrative;
Society, Functioning of Anglo-Norman;
Urban AdministrationCOMPERTA
Comperta(“birth tales,” plural of Old Irish compert
[conception/birth]) are among the classes of tales
found in Irish narrative literature, and they deal almost
exclusively with the events surrounding the conception
and birth of a hero. The native classification was
according to tale type, usually the first word of the
title. Examples of the classes Comperta, Imrama (Voy-
ages), andEchtrai(Expeditions) are:Compert Con
Culainn(Birth of Cú Chulainn), Imraim Brain (Voyage
of Bran), and Echtrae Chonnlai (Expedition of
Connlae). Two lists of the various classes of tales survive
in Irish manuscripts and are referred to as List A and
List B, of which List B includes the class Comperta.
These lists contain the stories that a medieval Irish poet
would have been expected to be able to narrate.
The genre of the Compert, or birth tale, appears to
be quite ancient. It is present not only in Celtic tradi-
tion, but also in mythologies worldwide (e.g., the birthCOMMON LAW