An Early Tudor Debate on the Relation between Law and Equity

The Conscience of Thomas More: An Introduction to Equity in Modernity

“…72 Equity's popularity, and the litigant's increasing desire for it, came from a simple fact of bureaucratic efficiency based on 'an independent body of rules regulating, amongst other things, the transfer and enjoyment of real property', where 'the Chancellor had taken on the mantle of an appellate court, meddling with the proceedings and reviewing the decisions of the common law courts according to principles of equity or conscience.' 73 But desire also came from a pervasive and popular appreciation of Equity as an idea. There was a sixteenth-century culture saturated in Equity as a 'powerful concept' that More would undoubtedly have appreciated and understood.…”