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1.4 The Contemporary Contribution of Equity to English Law 9 Equity remains relevant today. As will be illustrated throughout this book, it clearly is, both in terms of explaining long-established doctrines of private law and also as a mecha nism for providing new solutions to contemporary problems: Equity is not, as it is some times quaintly put, ‘past the age of child-bearing’. Equity can still be used to create new doctrines and to develop existing ones to provide solutions to contemporary problems that are ignored by the Common Law. The best way of illustrating the continued relevance of Equity to English law is by refer ence to particular legal subjects. As you will see, the modern contribution of Equity relates both to the identification of significant rights, duties, powers, and liabilities, but also to important remedies. 1.4.1 The law of contract Many aspects of the law of contract have been influenced by Equity. This influence has First, there are situations in which Equity operates to determine whether a party’s promise is more apparent than real. There is a variety of situations in which a party to a contract has appeared to have made a real promise, but in circumstances under which it should not be considered to be valid. The Common Law has various doctrines to identify whether a party’s consent is real, but Equity’s approach is more nuanced and flexible. So, for ex ample, the Common Law recognizes that, where a party’s promise has been induced by fraudulent misrepresentation, this will be sufficient to enable the contract to be set aside. But Equity will recognize this even where the misrepresentation was negligent or inno cent. Equity recognized a wider concept of mistake than at Common Law to vitiate a contract, although this has since been rejected. 29 (ii) Fairness of the transaction Equity is sometimes willing to examine the procedural fairness of a transaction, as regards the process by which the contract was made. If one party can be shown to have abused their relationship with the other party, or if this abuse can be presumed from the nature of the relationship, the contract may be set aside by virtue of the doctrine of undue influ ence. 30 Equity is even willing to assess the fairness of the contract. If this is considered to have involved one party unconscientiously exploiting their superior bargaining position to the detriment of the claimant who is in a much weaker position, 31 the contract may be set aside by virtue of the equitable doctrine of unconscionable conduct. 32 (iii) Supplementing the law of contract Sometimes no contract will have been formed but one party has made a promise on which the other party has relied. In such a case, the Common Law is unable to assist because the strict requirements for a contract have not been satisfied, usually through the absence of any consideration being provided by the relying party. But it is unconscionable for a party © Oxford University Press taken four main forms. (i) Validity of consent

29 Great Peace Shipping Ltd v Tsavliris Salvage (International) Ltd [2002] EWCA Civ 1407, [2003] QB 679. 30 Royal Bank of Scotland plc v Etridge (No 2) [2002] 2 AC 773. 31 Lloyd’s Bank Ltd v Bundy [1975] QB 326, 337 (Lord Denning MR). 32 Hart v O’Connor [1985] AC 1000. © Oxford University Press