What is Equity?
I noticed while reading the Free Speech and Music thread that there was considerable confusion about the nature of remedies available in defamation cases. This post should be read as an adjunct to my comment on that thread, and – it is hoped – it should make arguments about reputation, rights and compensation a little clearer.
Equity is that body of rules developed by the Court of Chancery before the Judicature Acts and since then in courts exercising equitable jurisdiction. It first emerged from under the common law due to inadequacies in the latter. By the late Middle Ages, the common law had become rigid, particularly in its procedure. Justice was not available to a petitioner whose grievance fell outside the established system of writs, or who sought to bring a claim against a locally powerful defendant. Importantly, in a time when common law judges supposedly ‘declared’ the law, equity openly admitted its judges made law. At least initially, it was unencumbered by precedent and decided cases according to ‘rules of equity and good conscience’, leading to Seldon’s jest that ‘equity is a roguish thing […] they should make the standard for its measure the chancellor’s foot’.
A question for all you economist-types
OK smart people, here’s your chance to educate the village idiot:
Is it possible to have a healthy economy with all four of the following characteristics:
- low taxes
- low inflation
- low interest rates
- low unemployment
Let’s pretend God installs you as a benevolent dictator of modern-day Australia: what would you do to achieve such an economy?
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