Judicature Acts

The 1873 and 1875 statutes that fused English law and equity into one court system

Overview

The Judicature Acts merged the historically separate courts of common law and Chancery into a single Supreme Court of Judicature, in which every judge could administer both legal and equitable rules. The reform answered centuries of procedural chaos litigants suffered shuttling between systems. Fusion of administration survived even where the doctrines remain distinct, and the structure it created governs the English courts today. Most common law federations copied the model. Where rules of law and equity conflict, equity prevails under the fusion provisions, a rule the acts made explicit.