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Law in a Gaelic Utopia: Perceptions of Brehon Law in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Ireland
Author(s)
Date Issued
2007-01-01
Date Available
2019-05-23T11:55:06Z
Abstract
It is well known that the term “utopia” was invented by a lawyer. The word was used by Sir Thomas More as the title of his famous work describing an ideal commonwealth situated on a fictitious island in the New World. “Utopia” literally means “nowhere” or “no place” in Latin but since the publication of More’s book in 1516 the word has acquired a different meaning in the English language. It is now generally understood to mean “good place” or “ideal place” with connotations of impracticality and unattainability.
Yet, in a broad sense the word “utopia” can mean much more than an imaginary idyllic land. In many ways a utopia represents an expression of desire on the part of its author. Following this reasoning, one might say that utopia is little more than a means of expressing ideal dreams of human happiness. Taken in this context, a utopia need not be a place at all. Alternatively, a utopia can be defined in terms of time. For many people this means an ideal future. Much of the genre of science fiction is dependent on utopias of this sort. For other people utopia lies in the past, in the idea of the Golden Age, a concept that is probably common to most cultures.
Type of Material
Book Chapter
Publisher
Martin Meidenbauer
Start Page
247
End Page
276
Copyright (Published Version)
2007 Martin Meidenbauer
Language
English
Status of Item
Not peer reviewed
Part of
Brupbacher, O., Grotkamp, N., Osterkamp, J., Röder, T., Ruppert, S., Sörgel, D. (eds.). Remembering and Forgetting: Yearbook of Young Legal History
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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