Essays on the History of Equity

D Foster, Charles Mitchell (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

488 Seiten

2026
Hart Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-5099-5512-1 (ISBN)

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This volume presents various facets of the history of equity in England between the 14th and 20th centuries.

Writing a history (or histories) of equity raises difficult questions of philosophy and theology, as well as jurisprudence and legal history. When one speaks of ‘equity’, for example, do we mean Aristotelian epieikeia, civilian aequitas, a theological/juridical conscience, the common law concept of the ‘equity of the statute’, or the rules applied by the court of chancery before 1875?

This terminological problem is compounded when we consider how these ideas were developed over time. Whilst conscience had been an organising concept for St German, the political disputes surrounding the Earl of Oxford’s case introduced the prerogative into understandings of the chancery’s jurisdiction. The emergence of clear, doctrinal rules governing (inter alia) the equity of redemption and the beneficiary’s right under a trust may well be attributable to the complex interplay of theory and practice in the central courts of equity at this time.

If the earlier history of equity remains somewhat obscure, the same is no less true of developments in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Whereas the historian of the 14th century might search in vain for new material, the modern era poses the opposite problem. The overwhelming glut of undigested information in the later period – treatises, court records, reports, pamphlets, practice manuals – raises obvious issues of source selection when generating new narratives for the period.

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 book exposes the strands of thought which ‘equity’ comprises and the mechanisms by which its rules evolved. In so doing, this collection provides a useful way-marker for future studies in the nature of English equity.

David Foster is Lecturer in Property Law and Legal History and Charles Mitchell is Professor of Law, both at University College London, UK.

1. Historical Foundations of English Equity, David Foster (University College London, UK)
2. Semantics of Conscience in Medieval Law, David Ibbetson (University of Cambridge, UK)
3. The Statute of Richard III (1484) and the Emergence of Beneficial Ownership in Freehold Land, AJ Hannay (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
4. Epieikeia and the Common Law: The Rise and Fall of Equitable Interpretation of English Statutes, Lorenzo Maniscalco (University of Cambridge, UK)
5. Conceptualising Conscience in the Early Tudor Conciliar Courts, Laura Flannigan (University of Oxford, UK)
6. The Ravenstone Litigation and the Jurisdiction of Chancery, Sir John Baker (University of Cambridge, UK)
7. Aspects of Equity in 1600 : Wills, Forfeitures and Trusts, DP Waddilove (University of Notre Dame, USA)
8. Concepts of Equity in Hake’s Epieikeia, Joanna McCunn (University of Bristol, UK)
9. ‘Equitatis Causa’: ‘Equity’ in the Practice of the Court of Chancery, 1515–1615, NG Jones (University of Cambridge, UK)
10. Insolvent Debtors in Law and Equity, 1543–1624, Fleur Stolker (University of Oxford, UK)
11. Enforcing Equitable Rights against Non-Privies, c. 1590–1680, David Foster (University College London, UK)
12. A Re-examination of the Expectant Heir in Seventeenth-Century Chancery, Helen Saunders (Keele University, UK)
13. Equity Agreement Doctrine in the Early Eighteenth Century, Mike Macnair (University of Oxford, UK)
14. Women, Infants and ‘Lunatics’ before the Court of Chancery in the Wake of the South Sea Bubble, Emily Ireland (University of Adelaide, Australia)
15. Constructive Fraud in the Time of Hardwicke and Thurlow, Julius AW Grower (University of Cambridge, UK)
16. Family Trustees and their Duties, c. 1740–1820, Michael Lobban (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)
17. Public Trusts, 1750–1850, Charles Mitchell (University College London, UK)
18. Equity and Legal Change, 1760–1875, Stephen Waddams (University of Toronto, Canada)
19. Equity, Legal Coding, and the Foundations of Banking: Foley v Hill (1838–48), Joshua Getzler (University of Oxford, UK)
20. Accounting and Breach of Trust in the Nineteenth Century, MJ Cleaver (University of New South Wales, Australia) and Andreas Televantos (University of Oxford, UK)
21. Equity after Fusion: The View from Legal Treatises, (King’s College London, UK)

Erscheint lt. Verlag	5.3.2026
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
	Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
	Recht / Steuern ► Rechtsgeschichte
	Recht / Steuern ► Wirtschaftsrecht ► Gesellschaftsrecht
ISBN-10	1-5099-5512-7 / 1509955127
ISBN-13	978-1-5099-5512-1 / 9781509955121
Zustand	Neuware