I'm afraid that I'm not familiar either with the Cato Institute or its publications. But I am familiar with Irish law and with the Law of Restitution in many countries, and I think I can answer the general query fairly quickly: the system you are referring to is almost certainly Ireland. In the brehon law system, common in Ireland before the coming of English law from 1189, most crimes were punishable by a duty to compensate the victim for loss. Thus, if there had been a theft, the thief had to make restitution of the proceeds or its value. If there had been a personal injury, the criminal had to pay compensation. This applied even in the case of a killing, where the fine was payable to the next of kin of the deceased. (The name for such a fine by way of compensation or restitution (as the case may be) was eric (with an accent on the e)). The leading introduction to this system:

Kelly Fergus A GUIDE TO EARLY IRISH LAW (Dublin, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988) one volume of a series on Early Irish law published by the DIAS.

There is (as yet !) no textbook on the modern Irish law of Restitution; and few traces of the brehon law survive into modern law. However, it is true that the brehon law

punished its criminals mainly by restitution

where restitution has an expanded meaning.

Scottish law is entirely different: its law has many Roman law antecedents, and the leading book on Restitution in Scotland is

William J. Stewart THE LAW OF RESTITUTION IN SCOTLAND (Edinburgh, W. Green, 1992)

Hope this helps.

Eoin.

EOIN O'DELL
Barrister, Lecturer in Law

Trinity College
Dublin 2
Ireland

ph (+ 353 - 1) 608 1178
fax (+ 353 - 1) 677 0449

(All opinions are personal; no legal responsibility whatsoever is accepted.)
Live Long and Prosper !!