The Judicature Acts 1873-75

Rivalry between the Courts

EQUITY AND THE COMMON LAW

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Task1. Read & translate the text into Ukrainian.

The Court of Equity (or Chancery) became very popular because of its flexibility; its superior procedures; and its more appropriate remedies. Problems arose as to the issue of injunctions: the common law courts objected to the Chancellor issuing injunctions restraining the parties to an action at common law either from proceeding with it or, having obtained judgement, from entering it in cases where, in the Chancellor's opinion, injustice would result. Consequently, a certain rivalry developed between the two courts and this came to a head in the Earl of Oxford's Case (1616) 1 Rep Ch 1 in which the common law court gave a verdict in favour of one party and the Court of Equity then issued an injunction to prevent that party enforcing that judgement. The dispute was referred to the King who asked the Attorney-General to make a ruling. It was decided that in cases of conflict between common law and equity, equity was to prevail. From that time on the common law and equity worked together, side by side.

As equity was developing, it had no fixed rules of its own and each Chancellor gave judgement according to his own conscience. This led to criticism about the outcome of cases and John Selden, an eminent seventeenth century jurist, declared, "Equity varies with the length of the Chancellor's foot". To combat this criticism Lord Nottingham (Lord Chancellor 1673-82) started to introduce a more systematic approach to cases and by the nineteenth century, equity had become as rigid as the common law. Delays were caused by an inadequate number of judges and the officials depended on fees paid by the litigants so that there was every incentive to prolong litigation for individual tasks and mulitply these tasks.

Some attempt was made to assimilate the remedies granted by the Court of Chancery and the common law courts. Thus under the Common Law Procedure Act 1854 the common law courts were given some power to award equitable remedies and the Chancery Amendment Act 1858 gave the Chancellor the power to grant damages in addition to, or in substitution for, an injunction or a decree of specific performance.

The Judicature Acts 1873-75 rationalised the position. They created one system of courts by amalgamating the common law courts and the court of equity to form the Supreme Court of Judicature which would administer common law and equity.

The Supreme Court of Judicature consists of the High Court divided into divisions known as the Queen's Bench Division, Chancery Division, and the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division (re-named the Family Division in 1970 and the work reassigned); the Court of Appeal; and, since the Supreme Court Act 1981, the Crown Court. Each Division exercises both legal and equitable jurisdiction. Thus any issue can be adjudicated in any Division; and any point of law or equity can be raised and determined in any Division; but, for the sake of administrative convenience, cases are allocated to the Divisions according to their general subject-matter. Thus the court "is now not a Court of Law or a Court of Equity, it is a Court of complete jurisdiction." (Pugh v Heath (1882), per Lord Cairns.)

It was forseen that a court which applied the rules both of common law and of equity would face a conflict where the common law rules would produce one result, and equity another. Section 25 of the Judicature Act 1873 provided that if there was any conflict between these principles, then equity was to prevail. However, this did not fuse the principles of common law and equity, which still remain as separate bodies of rules. "The two streams have met and still run in the same channel, but their waters do not mix" (Maitland).

Дата добавления: 2014-12-17