Court of Chancery

An English court concerned principally with equity, developed to provide remedies where the common law offered inadequate relief. It dealt especially with trusts, estates, mortgages, injunctions, and disputes over property. In the nineteenth century it was one of the principal superior courts, alongside the common-law courts. The Judicature Acts 1873-5 transferred its jurisdiction to the Chancery Division of the High Court, which continues to exercise much of its traditional jurisdiction today.