ABSTRACT
I have tried quite deliberately not to allow my own enthusiasm for this subject to interfere with a clear discussion of the principles set out in the decided cases or imposed by statute. My assumption has been that the reader would be most interested in an account of equity and of the law of trusts which would make the complexities somewhat clearer, which would be easy to read from cover-to-cover, and which would cover all of the key principles. However, it seems to me that such a reader would also benefit from a short, concluding chapter which shines a light on some of the interesting possibilities presented by equity, many of which are bound up with the philosophy underpinning the idea that a strict legal rule should be vacated if justice so demands it. I warn you that to many flinty-hearted trusts lawyers and to those who practise Chancery law in Lincoln’s Inn, some of what I am about to say appears to be dangerously progressive. By contrast, I prefer to think of it as reconnecting the practice of the courts of equity with ancient ideas about equity and justice.
