British Equitable Theory

In this thesis, through an overview of the emergence and development of English equity and its rules, the author tries to study the legal mechanism which corrects the legal rigidity and deficiency by equitable way, as well as its own limitations.The thesis consists of a brief introduction and six parts. The first part deals with the equitable thinking and judicial practices before the formation of English equity. The second part analyzed the legal background of the emergence of English equity. The common law was embodied in rigid forms of writs and its fixed types which can not deal with new constantly emerging cases, and the limited remedy that common law can provide, i.e., damages or payment of compensation. In addition, the common law system does not recognize the rights and interests of beneficiaries under uses or trusts and the equity redemption of mortgagors.The third part discusses the chancery's equitable jurisdiction, which has two sides, Latin and English. The latter was developed when the chancery dealt with cases which the common law courts could not try. The basic rules and scope of the chancellor's jurisdiction was more or less defined in the seventeenth century.The fourt??rt deals with equitable remedies, of which the specific performance and injunction are the most important. The fifth part discusses the recognition and protection of equitable rights, and mainly refers to rights of beneficiaries under uses or trusts, as well as the equity redemption.The sixth part discusses the challenges encountered by English equity and its reforms. It describes the conflict between equity and the common law and the subsequent fusion of the collision, pointing out that after equity developed into a collection of technical rules like the common law English equity also became rigid. So there came with the reforms of equity.Finally, the thesis makes some concluding remarks on the equitable justice as a legal redress mechanism, based on the previous discussions. It is summed up that the equitable administration of justice serving as a remedy for rigidity and deficiency of universal legal rules, although flawed, is still worthy of using for reference for our country's judicial reform to achieve justice.