Equity XI

Equity, if anything, seeks to achieve a balanced legal system by remedying the defects of the common law and this aspect of equity is defined by the German philosopher Hegel (Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1770 – 1831).

“Equity involves a departure from formal rights owing to moral or other considerations and is concerned primarily with the content of the lawsuit. A court of equity, however, comes to mean a court which decides in a single case without insisting on the formalities if a legal process or, in particular, on the objective evidence which the letter of the law may require. Further, it decides on the merits of the single case as a unique one, not with a view to disposing of it in such a way as to create a binding legal precedent for the future.”

In short equity decides each case on its merits, taking into account what is fair and just, and does not create and nor does it intent to create, a binding precedent.

Copyright © 2019 by Dyarne Jessica Ward