In Law, What is Balancing the Equities?
The idea of balancing the equities has existed in the legal sphere since classical Greek times, when Plato wrote about the difficulty of balancing the law as set forth and a sense of fairness. Balancing the equities refers to a type of judgment which may go beyond the law when the law is deemed to be inadequate. Balancing the equities often turns up in real estate disputes and environmental law, where to obey the letter of the law would be to do an injustice to the situation. Despite the extensive number of laws on the books, the legal system is not always perfect, and balancing the equities in legal cases is an attempt to rectify the situation.
