Shantanu Majumdar considers the uneasy relationship between common law and equity
The Supreme Court of Judicature Acts 1873–91 produced a fusion of the administration of the courts, but whether and to what extent they have produced a fusion of the substantive law—of common law with equity—remains a difficult and surprisingly controversial question.
One of the oddities of the statutory limitation regime is that it does not expressly or directly apply to equitable claims but that is not to say that it is silent on the matter. The Limitation Act 1980 (LA 1980), s 36 is concerned with equitable jurisdiction and remedies and takes with one hand but gives back with the other in stipulating that the time limit under numerous sections of LA 1980 “shall not apply to any claim for specific performance of a contract or for an injunction or for other equitable relief” except, tantalisingly:
“In so far as any such time limit may be applied by the court by analogy in like manner as the corresponding time limit under any
