Sir Frederick Pollock wrote that 'English-speaking lawyers ...have
specialised the name of Equity'. It is typical for legal textbooks
on the law of equity to acknowledge the diverse ways in which the
word 'equity' is used and then to focus on the legal sense of the
word to the exclusion of all others. There may be a professional
responsibility on textbook writers to do just that. If so, there is
a counterpart responsibility to read the law imaginatively and to
read what non-lawyers have said of equity with an open mind. This
book is an exploration of the meaning of equity as artists and
thinkers have portrayed it within the law and without. Watt finds
in law and literature an equity that is necessary to good life and
good law but which does not require us to subscribe to a moral or
'natural law' ideal. It is an equity that takes a principled and
practical stand against rigid formalism and unthinking routine in
law and life, and so provides timely resistance to current forces
of extremism and entitlement culture. The project is an educational
one in the true etymological sense of leading the reader out into
new territory. The book will provide the legal scholar with deep
insight into the rhetorical, literary and historical foundations of
the idea of equity in law, and it will provide the law student with
a cultural history of, and an imaginative introduction to, the
technical law of equity and trusts. Scholars and students of such
disciplines as literature, classics, history, theology, theatre and
rhetoric will discover new insights into the art of equity in the
law and beyond. Along the way, Watt offers a new theory on the
naming of Dickens' chancery case Jarndyce and Jarndyce and suggests
a new connection between Shakespeare and the origin of equity in
modern law. 'This beautiful book, deeply learned in the branch of
jurisprudence we call equity and deeply engaged with the western
literary tradition, gives new life to equity in the legal sense by
connecting it with equity in the larger sense: as it is defined
both in ordinary language and experience and by great writers,
especially Dickens and Shakespeare. Equity Stirring transforms our
sense of what equity is and can be and demonstrates in a new and
graceful way the importance of connecting law with other arts of
mind and language.' James Boyd White, author of Living Speech:
Resisting the Empire of Force 'Equity Stirring' is a fine example
of interdisciplinary legal scholarship at its best. Watt has
managed to produce a book that is fresh and innovative, and
thoroughly accessible. Deploying a range of familiar, and not so
familiar, texts from across the humanities, Watt has presented a
fascinating historical and literary commentary on the evolution of
modern ideas of justice and equity. Ian Ward, Professor of Law at
the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. "this is an important,
compendious, and thought-provoking work that should be on the
shelves of everyone interested in equity studies." Mark Fortier,
Law and Literature "there is much of interest to the legal
historian...the book's insights and erudition did engage this
rather sceptical reader, who would like to believe that equity
could achieve justice, but fears rather that it can only be as fair
as the court dispensing it." Rosemary Auchmuty, The Journal of
Legal History "With luck, Equity Stirring will stir...taxonomic
positivists from their culture of entitlement, waking them to the
possibility that law and justice do not form the perfect
quadration". Nick Piska, Social & Legal Studies "a highly
imaginative, original and refreshing foray into the legal and
ethical import of concepts too often thought to be difficult,
archaic and obscure...Watt gives us a way into the subject which is
forceful in its imaginative reach and its ethical import..." David
Gurnham, Law, Culture and the Humanities
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