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English legal system

Common law and equity

Following the Norman conquest, English law has been described as a common law
system. This was a system whereby a number of legal concepts from Norman law
were incorporated into the English system.

Common law:

 developed from local customs

 introduced the system of precedent (see section 4)

 the only remedy is damages

 may be rigid and inflexible.

Judges would travel around the country and apply a mixture of precedent and
common sense to build up a body of internally consistent law. However, this would
sometimes result in harsh consequences.

To deal with the issue that damages are not always a suitable remedy, equity was
developed two or three hundred years later after common law and introduced
fairness into the English legal system.

Equity:

 developed as a petition by a party who felt the common law had led to injustice

 it is more flexible than the common law

 it introduced new discretionary remedies, e.g. injunctions and specific
performance

 it is concerned with fairness and therefore will not be granted if there is undue
delay in bringing the case or if the petitioner has himself acted unfairly, or
where there is no mutuality (both parties should be able to bring a case).

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