Welsh Journals

SUMMARY AND SUGGESTIONS THE aims of the Colloquium on the Welsh Laws were 'to afford an opportunity for those who are working upon, or are interested in, the Welsh laws to meet each other, to pool and exchange ideas, and to make plans for the future'. Throughout the meetings-in the widely representative membership, in the papers and discussions- there were many encouraging signs that the Welsh lawbooks are beginning to receive 'the attention which is their due'. At the final meeting a discussion was held 'to summarize and bring together the ideas put forward and the suggestions made in the foregoing discus- sions'. This paper is based on notes made during the Colloquium and represents the substance of the remarks of the opening speaker at that discussion. In his 'review of studies in the Welsh laws since 1928' Sir Goronwy Edwards has reminded us of the two main tasks which have to be undertaken. There is the essential preliminary of making the texts of the lawbooks available in satisfactory editions. Only then can the historical and comparative study of Welsh law, the study of its central ideas and of its development, be fruitfully accomplished. The basic weaknesses in the pattern of Aneurin Owen's 'operose task' are now apparent to all. At the same time the greatness of his achievement is widely recognized. His bi-partite hypothesis of 'three independent codes', of regional applicability, and 'anomalous laws' containing 'additional and later matter' in which 'are compre- hended legal dicta and decisions, pleadings and elucidatory matter', is no longer tenable. Nevertheless, Owen's concept of 'three distinct forms of laws', in so far as this is taken to mean 'main versions', still offers a convenient starting-point for the general planning of critical editions. An immediate problem, however, is that of the nomen- clature to be used when referring to these main 'forms', or 'groups', or 'families'. As Sir Goronwy has pointed out, it is clear that there must be agreement on a system of conventional designations for these families and that 'substantive titles' should at present be avoided. This problem, of course, is closely related to that raised by the tendency to replace Owen's territorial or regional ascription by attribution to a particular author or compiler-thus Venedotian/ Iorwerth, Dimetian/Blegywryd, Gwentian/Cyfnerth. Since 'the Welsh lawbooks in their extant form are patchworks made up of varying numbers of distinct parts, each dealing with some topic or aspect of