The past decade has seen Professor McLeod develop a considerable reputation for his work in the field of expert evidence. Starting from the writing of a text on the legal implications of DNA profiling in forensic cases, he has continued to teach and publish extensively in the field. In addition to his speciality in expert evidence, Professor McLeod publishes regularly in the area of taxation law, including the annual production of a textbook on Australian income tax legislation. He also has a continuing interest in publishing research associated with teaching and learning, and psycholinguistics. The latter involves the analysis of the words used in written documents to determine the unvoiced thinking patterns and opinions of authors. Professor McLeod had pioneered the application of these techniques in the legal field in relation to reading judgements.

Ireland’s reputation as the Celtic Tiger positioned at the economic forefront in the 21st Century economy is nothing new - in medieval times the country boasted a culture that relit the Dark Ages and an ancient legal system that outshone all others in Europe.

As an aside from his research into Evidence and Taxation law, Murdoch researcher Professor Neil McLeod has been unraveling the complexities of medieval Irish law for most of his career.

“Ireland had an extremely sophisticated legal system based on compensation rather than retribution and punishment,” said Professor McLeod.

“Irish law was very humane and had a complexity to its contract law not observed in England until the 19th Century.”

“For example, sellers were legally bound to admit defects in goods and buyers were entitled to a cooling off period until sunset – during which time they could seek advice about a contract and reconsider its wisdom.”

He explained that by the 7th Century, Ireland had already developed a judicial system in which court cases were determined by eyewitness evidence whereas England was still judging right from right wrong by dunking defendants 500 years later.

Of the modern scholars translating medieval Irish texts in an attempt to unravel their intricacies, Professor McLeod is the only one with a legal background.

His work requires an expertise in translating texts in the Old Irish (AD 600-900), Middle Irish (AD 900-1200) and early Modern Irish (AD 1200-1600) languages.

These Irish texts were originally written in the 7th to 9th Centuries AD, and were copied and re-copied, edited and added to by medieval lawyers for nearly a thousand years.

They represent the most comprehensive records of any Western medieval legal system, with more than 2000 pages of material still surviving.

The enormity and challenging nature of the task of interpreting these texts means that many of the sophisticated concepts encased within this medieval legal system still remain a mystery.

But the rewards for scholars working on these texts are great.

“Reading these texts is like picking up nuggets of gold in a new country,” said Professor McLeod.

“Because so much remains to be done, it’s not hard to find something wonderful to do. These texts also shed light on some important aspects of European history.”

Professor McLeod explained that reason why Ireland’s medieval legal system was so advanced was that the legal system was not run by a despotic royal dictatorship.

“Although the country had about 150 kings at any one time, they were not considered to be a font of law.

“This enabled the society to build a separate legal system with an independent judiciary – with laws that were based on advanced legal theory, not on the needs of politics or state revenue.”

As medieval Irish society was based on small farming communities while this complex legal system was being established, Professor McLeod believes that this research can teach us great deal about how law fits into society.

“The industrial revolution did not necessary bring sophistication with it,” he said.
“Examining this system teaches us that there is no such thing as a simple society as people will always be complex.”