The detailed content of this page is expected to develop during 2006/07. At present the material on equity is contained on the following link in the general trusts law material: click here.
The following essays are in draft form only. My general thesis as to the nature of equity is set out in Chapters 1 and 32 of Alastair Hudson, Equity & Trusts (Routledge Cavendish, 4th ed, 2005; 5th ed due in 2007). In time I will generate a monograph which explores in greater detail not only the outline of the case law on equity but also its history and its base in philosophy. This list of essays will grow in the meantime.
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Essays on equity
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| Equity, social justice and individualisation | |
| The trust as an equitable response | |
| The legal conscience | |
| The unbearable lightness of property | Click here |
My goal here is to consider the following issues in time:
(1) What is meant by the legal conscience and how can other understandings of the term "conscience", from psychology and literature, help us to understand that a legal conscience is an objective standard which can be established by law and not simply a subjective construct within individuals? For some discussion of this idea, click here.
(2) Is equity in fact a technique which can be identified in all legal systems as a means of achieving fair or just results in the face of strict legal rules which would otherwise generate an unjust result, even in systems of law which do not formally recognise equity in the sense that English law understands it?
(3) Given that equity is understood by social sciences other than law to be something to do with fairness and social justice, why is it that legal equity is limited to property law and some aspects of commercial law? Could the legal notion of equity be extended in the future to cover areas of law such as housing law and social welfare law where these non-legal notions of equity have greater sway in other disciplines.
(4) How does equity take account of individualisation?
Many of these issues are considered in outline terms in my textbook Equity & Trusts, particularly in the essay which constitutes Chapter 32. My intention is to publish material on this site which will in time grow into a monograph on the nature of equity.
