Essays on the History of Equity

David Foster, Charles Mitchell

• Publisher: Hart Publishing
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781509955138
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Estates & Trusts Law
• Index: Law

The history of equity takes in questions of philosophy, theology, jurisprudence and legal history.

When we speak of 'equity', do we mean Aristotelian epieikeia, civilian aequitas, a theological or juridical conscience, the common law concept of the 'equity of the statute', or merely the rules applied by the Court of Chancery before 1875? The purpose of this volume is to chart the evolution of equity in English legal history from the medieval period to the present day. Whether by investigating the historical foundations of the modern law, the jurisprudential underpinnings of the equitable jurisdiction, or the socio-political context of discrete legal developments, this collection exposes the strands of thought which 'equity' comprises and the mechanisms by which its rules evolved.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• 1. Historical Foundations of English Equity
• 2. Semantics of Conscience in Medieval Law
• 3. The Statute of Richard III (1484) and the Emergence of Beneficial Ownership in Freehold Land
• 4. Epieikeia and the Common Law: The Rise and Fall of Equitable Interpretation of English Statutes
• 5. Conceptualising Conscience in the Early Tudor Conciliar Courts
• 6. The Ravenstone Litigation and the Jurisdiction of Chancery
• 7. Aspects of Equity in 1600: Wills, Forfeitures and Trusts
• 8. Concepts of Equity in Hake’s Epieikeia
• 9. ‘Equitatis Causa’: ‘Equity’ in the Practice of the Court of Chancery, 1515–1615
• 10. Insolvent Debtors in Law and Equity, 1543–1624
• 11. Enforcing Equitable Rights against Non-Privies, c. 1590–1680
• 12. A Re-examination of the Expectant Heir in Seventeenth-Century Chancery
• 13. Equity Agreement Doctrine in the Early Eighteenth Century
• 14. Women, Infants and ‘Lunatics’ before the Court of Chancery in the Wake of the South Sea Bubble
• 15. Constructive Fraud in the Time of Hardwicke and Thurlow
• 16. Family Trustees and their Duties, c. 1740–1820
• 17. Public Trusts, 1750–1850
• 18. Equity and Legal Change, 1760–1875
• 19. Equity, Legal Coding, and the Foundations of Banking: Foley v Hill (1838–48)
• 20. Accounting and Breach of Trust in the Nineteenth Century
• 21. Equity after Fusion: The View from Legal Treatises
• Copyright Page