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Legal equity: The Court of Chancery, in early 19th-century London.. In the field of jurisprudence, equity is the particular body of law, developed in the English Court of Chancery, [1] with the general purpose of providing legal remedies for cases wherein the common law is inflexible and cannot fairly resolve the disputed legal matter. [2]
Maxims of equity are legal maxims that serve as a set of general principles or rules which are said to govern the way in which equity operates. They tend to illustrate the qualities of equity, in contrast to the common law, as a more flexible, responsive approach to the needs of the individual, inclined to take into account the parties' conduct and worthiness.
As the two jurisdictions became indistinguishable, "what in effect was a rule in equity became in practice considered as common law". [61] Scottish lawyers have raised concern that this system would create unjust decisions where cases are approached in terms of combining equity and common law reasoning. [62]
The Federal Equity Rules were court rules that, until 1938, governed civil procedure in suits of equity in federal courts. The Rules were established by the United States Supreme Court which was authorized by the United States Congress to make rules governing the form of mesne process, form and mode of proceeding in suits of equity [1] and the ...
Notably, the United States Constitution's Seventh Amendment preserves the right to a jury trial in civil cases over $20 to cases "at common law". Equity is said to operate on the conscience of the defendant, so an equitable remedy is always directed at a particular person, and that person's knowledge, state of mind and motives may be relevant ...
The law of trusts was constructed as a part of "Equity", a body of principles that arose in the Courts of Chancery, which sought to correct the strictness of the common law. The trust was an addition to the law of property , in the situation where one person held legal title to property but the courts decided it was fair just or "equitable ...
Equality before the law is one of the basic principles of some definitions of liberalism. [2] [3] It is incompatible with legal slavery. Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states: "All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law". [1]
It has traditionally been a requirement of equity that no relief can be granted unless there is irreparable injury. This requirement, commonly called the "irreparable injury rule", has been the subject of sustained academic criticism, especially by remedies scholar Douglas Laycock, who has argued at length that the rule does not actually explain the decisions of courts in the United States. [2]