Equity and Administration

Each generation of lawyers in common law systems faces an important question: what is the nature of equity as developed in English law and inherited by other common law jurisdictions? While some traditional explanations of equity remain useful - including the understanding of equity as a system that qualifies the legal rights people ordinarily have under judge-made law and under legislation - other common explanations are unhelpful or misleading. This volume considers a distinct and little noticed view of equity. By examining the ways in which courts of equity have addressed a range of practical problems regarding the administration of deliberately created schemes for the management of others' affairs, modern equity can be seen to have a strongly facilitative character. The extent and limits on this characterisation of equity are explored in chapters covering equity's attitude to administration in various public and private settings in common law systems.

1. Equity and administration P. G. Turner; 2. Constraints on the exercise of trustees' powers Guy Newey; 3. Constraints on the exercise of trustees' powers: a commentary Alan Steinfeld; 4. The administration and maladministration of funds in equity: making a coherent set of choices R. C. Nolan; 5. The administration and maladministration of funds in equity: a commentary Nicholas Patten; 6. Equity and insolvency Look Chan Ho; 7. Equity and insolvency: a commentary Catherine Addy; 8. Equitable doctrines in business associations P. G. Turner; 9. Equitable doctrines in business associations: a commentary Richard Snowden; 10. Why the rule in Saunders v. Vautier is wrong John H. Langbein; 11. Why the rule in Saunders v. Vautier is wrong: a commentary Paul Matthews; 12. Equity and statute J. D. Heydon; 13. Equity and statute: a commentary Mark Leeming; 14. The equity of the executive: fairness in tax law in nineteenth-century England Chantal Stebbings; 15. The equity of the executive: a commentary John F. Avery Jones; 16. Equity in the modern administrative state William Gummow; 17. Equity in the modern administrative state: a commentary David Feldman; 18. Equity and administrative behaviour Henry E. Smith; 19. Equity and administrative behaviour: a commentary Timothy Endicott; 20. Equity and human rights Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe; 21. Equity and human rights: a commentary Philip Sales; 22. Field, fusion and the 1850s: how an American law reformer influenced the Judicature Act of 1875 Patricia I. McMahon; 23. Field, fusion and the 1850s: a commentary Michael Lobban; 24. Equitable protection of legal professional privilege - a distraction Adrian Zuckerman; 25. Equitable protection of legal professional privilege: a commentary Mike Macnair; 26. Equity's role Matthew Conaglen.