About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

83 Yale L.J. 1023 (1973-1974)
Toward Principles of Jury Equity

handle is hein.journals/ylr83 and id is 1035 raw text is: Notes Toward Principles of Jury Equity The fairness of a system of laws may be evaluated by its ability to provide both justice and equity. Justice exists to the extent that per- sons conform their actions to the universally applied, general expecta- tions of behavior promulgated by the legal system, while equity de- mands sufficient flexibility of application to permit these general ex- pectations to adapt to the unique circumstances of individual cases. This tension between justice and equity as two aspects of a single legal system was discussed as early as Aristotle. And at least two crucial de- velopments in the evolution of the English legal system-the use of king's courts before the middle of the thirteenth century,2 and of the 1. See ARISTOTLE, NICOMACHEAN ETHics 141 (Bobbs-Merrill 1962): What causes the problem is that the equitable is not just in the legal sense of just but as a corrective of what is legally just. The reason is that all law is universal, but there are some things about which it is not possible to speak correctly in universal terms. Now, in situations where it is necessary to speak in universal terms but impossible to do so correctly, the law takes the majority of cases, fully realizing in what respect it misses the mark. The law itself is none the less correct. For the mistake lies neither in the law nor in the lawgiver, but in the nature of the case. See also Chroust, Aristotle's Conception of Equity, 18 NOTRE DAME LAw. 119 (1942). Considerations of equity, defined by Aristotle as justice in the individual case, would require the decisionmaker to depart from the general law in these special cases; cf. H. M cCLINTOcK, HANDBOOK OF THE PRINCIPLES OF EQUITY 1 (2d ed. 1948), which de- fines equity as the' power to meet the moral standards of justice in a particular case by a tribunal having discretion to mitigate the rigidity of the application of strict rules of law so as to adapt the relief to the circumstances of the particular case. 2. Until England developed a nation-wide legal system at the end of the twelfth century, justice was administered by various local courts. W. WALSH, A TREATISE ON EQurry 2 (1930). These were the courts of the hundred and the shire during the Saxon period and the courts of the manor and the county in early Norman times. The king, however, as the source of all justice, could intervene as a matter of grace in any local case and remove the proceeding to the king's court or council. Id. at 1-2. See also H. MCCLINTOCK, supra note 1, at 34. Thus, a dissatisfied local litigant who could persuade the king of the righteousness of his case had recourse to a settlement according to the king's conscience and reason. As a national court system was established under Henry II, the power to issue writs granting a litigant's request to have his case heard in the national or king's courts was delegated to the king's Chancellor. G. BISPHAM, THE PRINCIPLES OF EQUITY 6 (11th ed. 1931). These writs gradually became a matter of right rather than royal favor and the decisions of the king's courts marked the beginning of the common law. From the middle of the thirteenth century, however, these common law courts began to lose their discretionary powers and the types of writs which could be granted as well as the remedies avail- able to the courts became institutionalized. By the middle of the fourteenth century, the concern for justice in the individual case which had given rise to the king's courts had been transformed into a rigid system of general law. See G. BISPHAM, supra at 6-8. H. MCCLINTOCK, supra note 1, at 4; W. WALSH, supra at 8. See also Adams, The Origin of English Equity, 16 COLUNf. L. REV. 87, 98 (1916); Barbour, Some Aspects of Fifteenth Century Chancery, 31 HARV. L. REv. 834, 859 (1918). 1023

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most