Equity – law and idea

This free course, Equity – law and idea, gives you the opportunity to broaden your skills in and knowledge and understanding of legal principles. Beyond the confines of the Common Law of England and Wales Equity is rarely discussed or understood, but has long played a vital role in the social, economic, cultural and political life of the nation. As a principle of justice however, equity can be traced back millennia and found, for example, in many different forms of religious and political thought the world over. As law, Equity is important; as an idea, it is timeless.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 A plurality of worlds
• 1 A plurality of worlds
• 1.1 The foundations of equity
• 2 Equity at the dawn of modernity
• 2 Equity at the dawn of modernity
• 2.1 The Reformation and its impact
• 2.2 The classical and decadent eras
• 3 The burden of justice, the burden of equity
• 3 The burden of justice, the burden of equity
• 3.1 Equity, capitalism, justice and opportunism
• 3.2 Laissez-faire capitalism
• 3.3 Imagining better law and better life
• 3.3.1 Equity’s purpose reconsidered
• 3.3.2 Utopians and anarchists
• 4 Equity as a wealth generator: the background
• 4 Equity as a wealth generator: the background
• 4.1 The roots of equity’s changing role
• 4.2 Equity as opportunism: creating the ‘right place and the right time’
• 4.3 Is it still possible to reconcile law and idea?
• Conclusion
• Keep on learning
• References
• Acknowledgements