ABSTRACT
Equity is the means by which a system of law balances out the need for certainty in rule-making with the need to achieve fair results in individual circumstances. An expression which has been commonly used to describe the way in which equity functions is that equity ‘mitigates the rigour of the common law’ so that the letter of the law is not applied in so strict a way that it may cause injustice in individual cases.1 English equity does this by examining the conscience of the individual defendant.2 Equity, then, is that part of English private law which seeks either to prevent any benefit accruing to a defendant as a result of some unconscionable conduct or to compensate any loss suffered by a claimant which results from some unconscionable conduct, and which also seeks to ensure that common law and statutory rules are not manipulated unconscionably. At its broadest, equity appears to imbue the courts with a general discretion to disapply statutory or common law rules whenever good conscience requires it;3
however, in practice, modern equity is comprised mainly of substantive and procedural principles which only permit the courts a limited amount of discretion.4
