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The term common law is confusing because it has different meanings depending on the context. It may be used to refer to law crafted by judges when they decide cases or law established by legislation. It can also be used to refer to law that is not equity. And, finally, it can be used to describe the law of countries which follow the common law. equity court of equity chancery common law common law system More information on the words discussed in the video, including sound files, examples of usage, common mistakes and encyclopaedic information, can be found in TransLegal's Legal English Dictionary.
Hi and welcome to TransLegal's lesson of the week.
Today we're going to be talking about common law and equity. These are two terms that are often confused and it's easy to see why people confuse them.
The term common law is confusing as it has different meanings depending on the context. So it could be used to refer to law crafted by judges when they decide cases, this is what we refer to as “case law” and this is in contrast to law established by legislation, by the legislature enacting legislation, also known as “statutory law”. It can also be used to refer to law that is not equity. And, finally, it can be used to describe the law of countries which follow the common law, like the United States and England as opposed to countries that follow Roman law or French law or the civil law tradition. In this sense it means the entirety of the law including legislation, case law and equity.
So then what is equity? Well equity is the name that we give to the set of rules that traditionally supplemented the common law where the application of the common law would have operated too harshly. This was done to achieve what is sometimes referred to as natural justice, or more simply speaking, fairness.
Today, equity has merged with the common law to become a branch of the law dealing with, among other things, trusts and certain remedies such as injunctions.
That's it for today. If you have any questions about the common law or equity, please leave a comment in the comment box below and myself or one of my colleagues will get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks, bye.
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