Principles of Equity (reprint of 3rd ed 1778)

Henry Home - better known by his judicial title of Lord Kames - was a leading figure in Enlightenment Scotland, writing prolifically and often dazzlingly across many different fields of knowledge. Of his publications on the discipline by which he earned his living, as advocate and judge, Principles of Equity is both the most celebrated and the most influential. The first book-length treatment of equity to appear in the English language, it offers a sophisticated analysis of the interaction of equity and common law in the abstract, and in relation to Scots law in particular. In addition, it has a special place in the Scottish legal canon as a work often regarded as of 'institutional' status and hence as a formal source of law. As Lord President Inglis said in 1889, 'The principles of equity as systematised by Lord Kames I look upon as the equity law of Scotland.'