Medieval Irish fosterage law specified a detailed legally enforced bracket on permitted correction

Evidence

Four. The protections. Here is where the Cáin Iarraith engages most directly with the season’s central question. The text specifies what kinds of correction the foster-parent may use and what kinds are forbidden. The general principle: correction must be proportionate to the offense. Striking out of anger is forbidden. Striking that draws blood requires explicit justification. Striking the head is, as in the Manu Smriti and the Qin code, prohibited as a matter of household discipline. Striking with weapons or with implements not designed for correction is prohibited. The text is not non-corporal — some physical correction is permitted within the bracket — but the bracket is detailed, specific, and legally enforced. — , The Rod and the Child, 1320

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Manu Smriti and Qin code brackets described in earlier episodes of this season — the cross-cultural pattern of bracketed correction. — connects to: Irish Brehon fosterage law protected children’s bodies earlier than any Continental European code — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 1322; English common law left Irish children less protected than Brehon law had — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 1339

Related

• Irish Brehon fosterage law protected children’s bodies earlier than any Continental European code (similarity 0.86)
• English common law left Irish children less protected than Brehon law had (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• English common law left Irish children less protected than Brehon law had #responds-to (0.60) — , The Rod and the Child, 1339