“Equity” is a term widely used in ethics, law, and
jurisprudence, with connotations that suggest or invoke
ideals of justice, fairness, equality, mercy, judgment
according to law, as well as judgment that bypasses
or transcends strict law in the interest of conscience,
humanity, natural law, or natural justice (as distin-
guished from justice according to law): judgment ac-
cording to the spirit, rather than the letter, of the law.
Equity is also a term used to denominate a special
system of law in England and the United States differ-
entiated from the common law.
In addition, equity is used to refer to an economic
interest—e.g., the equity of the redemption of the
mortgagor; or, more broadly conceived, as one's fair
economic share in an enterprise—for instance, in the
1967 strike of the American automobile workers, it was
stated that the workers “are going to insist that [they
get] the equity that flows from increased productivity
in Ford”; or equity may be used to point to a kind
of property which does not lend itself to precise defini-
tion, and must remain suggestive and detached—e.g.,
equity is the interest in a corporation vested in an
owner of shares of common stock. What these uses of
the term have in common is the notion that equity
is a claim or a right not known to the strict law, yet
one which the law does or ought to recognize.
Equity thus suggests that the law may not always
be perfect, that the enforcement of legal rights and
duties may fall short of justice, that there may be
conflicts between the demands of conventional or legal
justice and natural justice or justice according to con-
science or reason.
