chapter 4 Ideological Contributions of Celtic Freedom and Individualism to Human Rights
This chapter emphasizes the importance of the often-overlooked contribu- tions of indigenous European cultures to the development of human rights. Attention is given to the ancient Celtic culture, the ideas of Celtic freedom and individualism, the distinctive role of the Scottish theologian, John Dunn Scotus and the Scottish Arbroath Declaration of Freedom (1320).1 It is from the Scottish Enlightenment and its subsequent influence on the late 18th century revolutions that we see an affirmative declaration of the Rights of Man, which is a precursor to the development of modern human rights. The importance of the Celtic-Irish-Scottish contribution to human rights is that it was the foun- dation for individual liberty and dignity in Western civilization. Indigenous Celtic culture staked an original and critical claim to the ideal of universal hu- man dignity. This is an important insight because it broadens the ideals that promote human rights, including within them those ideals of the indigenous cultures of the world, whose voices are oftentimes forgotten. It strengthens the universality of human rights. i The Intellectual and Philosophical Origins of International Law and Human Rights
The intellectual and philosophical origins of human rights rhetoric and law, democracy, freedom and ideas supporting “consent of the governed” are in- tertwined in this composite explanation that attempts to explain all of these themes with the historical themes of Roman natural law, Athenian democracy and later the modern political philosophy of John Locke and his followers. The absence of a medieval connection between the alleged ancient Roman and Greek sources and the modern developments of human rights indicates that this perspective is faulty. This explanation has never really satisfied the West- ern historians who have struggled with this issue and, in particular, the medi- eval void, discussed. in the previous chapter.
1 Alexander Leslie Klieforth and Robert John Munro, The Scottish Invention of America, De- mocracy and Human Rights: The History of Liberty and Freedom from the Ancient Celts to the New Millennium, University Press of America (2004).
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The traditional Lockean analysis is inaccurate as the origins of human rights are located in the ancient Europeans, i.e., the Celts. The democracy attributed to the city-states of ancient Greece did not enfranchise women, slaves or non- Greeks who were considered barbarians and inferior. Slavery and other gross violations of mutual respect between humans permeated ancient societies with one exception, the ancient Celts who did not enslave humans because slavery was a violation of individual freedom and degraded both the master and the slave. Secondly, the philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries were centuries behind the Irish and Scottish Celts in human rights theory and the medieval Scottish moral philosophers who first articulated the idea of “con- sent of the governed,” human rights and democracy.
A The Ancient Celts and the Ancient “Void” in Human Rights History The sources for this singular phenomenon are found in the histories and culture of the ancient Celtic tribes and later Irish and Scottish clans and, secondly, the Celtic church. Their doctrine represents the culmination of centuries of early Celtic and later Scottish laws and cultural and social orders that displayed an intense regard for democracy and individual rights. The Celts are “important in history by the value of the individual and the development of the personality.”2 According to an ancient Gaelic (Celtic) saying, “Greater than the Chief are the Clansmen.”3 Henri Berr noted that the essence of a Celtic tradition was self- respect and mutual respect of others, the very basis of human rights:
So, with their [Celts] physical mobility and mental elasticity, they acted as middlemen of civilization; they were “torch-bearers” in Europe… With a high, manly ideal of life, they at once despised death and aspired to the immortality of the soul. To worship the gods, to do nothing base, and to practice manhood was a Druidical axiom.4
The Celtic high regard for democracy and human rights permeated every as- pect of their culture and society. This high regard is seen first in their social and cultural order.
Their political rights were exercised through the small unit, sufficiently small to make the vote of the individual of some importance…. The small
2 Henri Berr, Foreword, to Henri Hubert, The Greatness and Decline of the Celts, xii–xiii (1934). 3 Id. 4 Id.