ABSTRACT
The conscience played an essential role in the development of English equity is a commonplace. C. K. Allen observes that a philosophical and theological conception of conscience was the one general principle which more than any other influenced equity. W. Barbour refers to conscience as a juristic principle proper to at least the early Chancery. An enduring difficulty with conscience as a juristic principle, one that may be self-evident to people moderns, is that conscience appears to be a privatized or subjective notion. There are several possible responses to the apparent incommensurability of conscience with what might be regarded as essential features of law. Conscience as concerned with specific actions, rather than with one's overall moral condition, appears more relevant to legal sphere, focused as it is on instances of conduct. The Court of Conscience and the Court Christian disappeared in Protestant lands, and with them also the historical notions of a law of conscience, human judges of conscience, a casuistry.
