Common law may also be contrasted with equity. Equity has been developed due to the problem of injustice created by common law. For example, a debtor has already repaid the money without the written evidence of debt being cancelled by a creditor, in that case, if a creditor sues the debtor for not paying the debt, the court will then judge according to the best appropriate evidence available which means the uncancelled document. To apply the principle of equity to this case, the debtor could go to the King directly and ask for an exception then the King would ask for the Lord Chancellor’s advice before making any decisions. From time to time, litigants could go directly to the Lord Chancellor and by-pass the king, thereby transforming office of chancery into court of chancery. And the courts began making decisions on the equity basis. However, it is possible that there may be conflicts between common law and equity when making decisions of the cases. Therefore, in 17th century, it was established that equity prevails when common law and equity conflict. After that, both of the common law and equity were merged and applied in the same courts.
Apart from common law being evolved into equity, granting of remedies is one of the factors that give rise to the difference between the common law and equity. Damages are mostly the common law remedy by simply applying compensation principle, meaning to put the suffered party in the same position as he would have been in if he had not suffered. And there are 4 types of damages granting to the suffered party, namely substantial damages, contemptuous damages, nominal damages and punitive damages.
Damages quantified according to the compensation principle are called substantial damages which are usually a small sum. Contemptuous damages are the remedies that the courts grant to claimants with contempt even though the actions the claimants brought in had been successful. Nominal damages, however, are the remedies that the courts award to claimants with reasonable belief. For punitive damages, the courts would usually award it to the claimants for more than he has lost in order to warn the defendants and take as a punishment.
Aside from the quantifiable damages granted by courts to claimants, there may be some situations where damages are hard to quantify, therefore, equitable remedies are developed to solve the problems, including specific performance and injunction. Specific performance is usually an order that courts make to defendants in order to protect the interests of the suffered party by actually compelling him to carry out some actions. Injunction is also an order made by courts to stop someone from doing something under the situation where damages are not an adequate remedy. Law of trusts is also another important aspect that applies under a situation where one person (trustee) holds something for another person (a beneficiary) and there will be rights and duties given to each person among the relationship.
Also, there are different sources of law, including primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are the legal and authoritative publications of law produced by law-making bodies, including courts, parliament and other statutory authorities. Secondary sources are the materials that comment on the legislation and case law, including textbooks of law, legal dictionaries and journals.
To conclude, English legal system can be sorted into different types of law, including common law, statue law and equity and each of them has its own characteristics. And there are 2 sources of law, including primary and secondary sources.
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jilljesselle (student)
