The Relevance of Equity as a Source of Law Today

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The relevance of Equity as a source of law today? There have been some new developments in Equity in the 20th century. These have occurred when the common law was defective and there was no statute that remedied the defect. In these circumstances the judge was able to create a new equitable remedy. The first of them was the Estoppel which prevents a person from denying the truth of a statement he has made when that statement has been acted upon by another to his disadvantage. There are two types of estoppel: Promissory Estoppel when one party to a contract promises the other that he will not enforce his rights under the contract provided the other person acts on this promises then it binds the person who made it. The modern starting point of this doctrine was Central London Property Trust v High Trees House Ltd 1947’s case. The second type is Proprietary Estoppel where one person leads another to suppose that he is giving him rights over his land, and another person acts to his detriment over this supposed right. The landowner will be estopped from later denying that he ever granted this right. A good example of this doctrine was in the case of Inwards v Baker 1965. The second equitable remedy was the Freezing order (Mareva Injunction) – a form of injunction which arose from the case of Mareva Compania Naviera SA v International Bulkcarriers SA 1975. Basically it is court order to a third party such as a bank or building society to freeze the assets of a defendant so preventing him/her form transferring their assets abroad. This is a particularly important process in commercial law as it helps the party wishing to bring an action by ensuring that the defendant will have assets that can be used to pay off debts. The third remedy was the Search Order (Anton Piller Order) – a court order that arose from the case of Anton Piller KG v Manufacturing Processes
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