Corpus Iuris Hibernici

[2]: 136 The CIH was intended as a replacement for the Ancient Laws of Ireland (1865-1901), a series which relied on more limited sources and suffered from unscholarly and unreliable editorial work (with the exception of that done by Robert Atkinson).

Prior to Binchy's work, the best sources for early Irish law were the unpublished transcripts of John O'Donovan and Eugene O'Curry, which circulated in scholarly libraries in a few (often incomplete) copies.

Because of this, scholars like Rudolf Thurneysen were forced to rely on O'Donovan and O'Curry to correct errors in the published version, but nonetheless referred to the Ancient Laws of Ireland in their published footnotes for reasons of accessibility.

Critics pointed out that it had no translations, no explanatory notes, few cross-references, and a table of contents which only listed the manuscripts transcribed.

[3]: 143–144  Fergus Kelly's Guide to early Irish law (1988) and Liam Breatnach's Companion to the Corpus iuris hibernici (2005) took on the task of identifying, describing, and making comprehensible these texts.

The text of a heptad in a 15th-century manuscript of early Irish law (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1316). The heptad is reproduced in CIH 538.17-20; the interlinear glosses are in CIH 538.21-33; and the commentary at the foot of the page is in CIH 538.34-539.6. [ 1 ] : 229