From the 13th century in England and Wales, equity developed as a system of justice in parallel with and complementary to the common law.

In equity, all parties had to be represented at all hearings and if one died or married complex procedures were needed to maintain the action.

[1] Over the following decades there was much debate leading to legislation including the Improvement of the Jurisdiction of Equity Act 1852 which allowed Chancery judges to decide questions of fact rather than remitting them to the common law courts.

[3] The purpose of the act was to require the Court of Chancery to determine every issue of fact or law necessary for the final resolution of the case, and thus to end the practice of sending particular issues in cases pending in Chancery, to be determined in the common law courts.

In the end, the Act was weakened from its initial intentions, allowing matters of fact to referred by a Chancery Judge to be decided by the assizes.