... rights 1.24 Within the field of proprietary rights in land, English law still draws a fundamental distinction between legal and equitable rights. Historically this distinction was grounded on the fact that legal rights were enforceable only in the common law courts of the king, whereas equitable rights fell within the exclusive and conscience-based jurisdiction, initially of the king's Chancellor, and later of the Court of Chancery. Equity was conceived as a corrective system of justice, designed to supplement the common law by responding more flexibly and sensitively to the need for fair dealing and just outcomes. It addressed, on an instance-specific basis, the hard cases for which the generalised dogmas of the common law afforded no adequate remedy. Inevitably the jurisdictions of common law and equity came into conflict, in so far as they frequently recognised different forms of entitlement and provided different forms of remedy for the litigant. After several centuries ...

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