Equity: The Court of Conscience or the King's Command, the Dialogues of St. German and Hobbes Compared
The Spanish Cardinal Merry del Val once said that for the Protestant, the Bible is a wax nose to be twisted anyway one pleases. The same could be said for the lawyer and equity. That intellectual quick-silver of justice called equity has taken on many different guises in many different contexts thro...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1991
|
| In: |
Journal of law and religion
Year: 1991, Volume: 9, Issue: 1, Pages: 113-149 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Spanish Cardinal Merry del Val once said that for the Protestant, the Bible is a wax nose to be twisted anyway one pleases. The same could be said for the lawyer and equity. That intellectual quick-silver of justice called equity has taken on many different guises in many different contexts throughout the history of law. It has been both friend and foe to individuals as well as groups in times of legal conflict.Throughout history, appeals to notions of equity, the spirit of the law that "bloweth where it listeth," have been made by individuals and groups whose needs were not being met by the strict letter of the law. Individual pleaders, often the poor and oppressed, have made appeals to equity in order to overcome the severe effects of the letter of the law. Civil rights leaders, labor unions and women suffragists have appealed to the broad concept of equity in order to effect social change.Although appeals to equity have often wrought positive change in the law, equitable power is seldom (if ever) in the hands of those who have the perfect "mind of God," that impartial eye that metes out justice from a totally balanced scale. Nor can it be said that equitable power has at all times been sought by those who are in positions of weakness and oppression. Perhaps this is why the famous Selden called equity a "roguish thing," likening it unto the measure of the Chancellor's foot. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1051110 |