2 - The equity jurisdiction of the exchequer

Summary

DEFINITION

Equity was a system of curial remedies which evolved in England in the fifteenth century in the court of the lord chancellor. It was, like any other system, fundamentally a combination of the theoretical principles of justice and the practical problems of putting them into operation. The important difference between equity and common law was that the latter arose in the twelfth century when judicial administration was vastly more difficult. By the fifteenth century the art of government was much more developed, and so, although the general conceptions of justice had not changed, they could be better implemented by the officers of the crown. By the fifteenth century the courts of common law were rigidly set in their ways; as a result a new court of law was needed to take advantage of the improvements of government for the better administration of justice. The procedures and remedies of the court of chancery, equity, in the sixteenth century came to be administered also in the court of exchequer. How this happened is the subject of the next section of this chapter.

The mediaeval exchequer, which came to be settled at Westminster, had financial jurisdiction over all of England, Wales, and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. When the exchequer developed its equity side, its equity jurisdiction was, naturally, geographically co-extensive with its revenue side.