Articles On The Court Of Chancery And The Fusion Of Law And Equity

The fusion of law and equity in common law systems was a crucial moment in the development of the modern law. In this volume leading scholars assess the significance of the fusion of law and equity from comparative, doctrinal, historical and theoretical perspectives.

This book sets out to defend the claim that Equity ought to remain a separate body of law; the temptation to iron-out the differences between neighbouring doctrines on the two sides of the Equity/Common Law divide should, in most cases, be resisted. The theoretical part of the book is argues that the characteristics of Equity, namely, appeal to conscience, flexibility, retroactivity and the use of morally-freighted jargon, are essential for the implementation of a legal ideal that has been neglected by the Common Law: 'Accountability Correspondence'. According to this fundamental legal ideal, liability imposed by legal rules should correspond to the pattern of moral duty in the circumstances to which the rules apply. Equity promotes this ideal in the fields of property and obligations by disallowing parties to exploit the rule-like nature of Common Law norms in a way that breaches their moral duty to the other party. By reference to various equitable doctrines, it is argued that the faults identified by critics of Equity, especially from the perspective of the Rule of Law, are highly exaggerated, and that the criticism often reflects a political belief in the supremacy of individualism and free market over empathy and social justice. The theoretical part is followed by three chapters, each dedicated to an in-depth analysis of the equitable doctrines of fiduciary duties, proprietary estoppel, and clean hands. For each doctrine, it is shown how their equitable characteristics are indispensable for achieving their social, ethical and economic purpose.

This study tackles the difficult yet crucial subject of the place of conscience in the development of English law, illuminating what is meant by describing the Court of Chancery as a 'court of conscience'. Addressing the notion of 'conscience' as a juristic principle in the Court of Chancery during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the book explores how this was understood in the early modern period. The study concludes with an exploration of the chancellorship of Lord Nottingham (1673-82), who is often regarded as the father of modern equity through his efforts to transform equity from a jurisdiction associated with discretion, into one based on 'rules'.

Excerpt from A History of the Court of Chancery: With Practical Remarks on the Recent Commission, Report, and Evidence, and on the Means of Improving the Administration of Justice in the English Courts of Equity When'we enter Upon the municipal law of any country, in its present state, we resemble a traveller, 'who crossing the Delta, loses his way among the numberless branches of the Egyptian river. But when we begin at the source, and follow the current of the law, it is in that course not less easy than agreeable; and all its relations and dependancies are traced with no greater difficulty, than are the many streams into which that magnificent river is divided before it is lost in the sea. Under the direction of this guide the writer of the following pages began 'to explore the hidden sources of English Law, and the origin of the Equity jurisdiction; but when he early discovered that mr. Hargrave and mr. Maddock had contemplated a History of the Court of Chancery, and that with all the advan. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.