What Does Chancery Mean In English Law?

Chanceries in English law referred to Courts of Equity. They were a type of court of equity in England referred to as either "Court of Chancery" or "High Court of Chancery".

These courts represented the sovereign through the Lord Chancellor and he had the authority or better yet jurisdiction to settle cases through the application of the principles of equity and fairness. The National Archives maintain records of proceedings that took place at these institutions which were finally merged with the more conventional Courts of Law in 1873. However some of these courts can still be found over the Atlantic in the states of Mississippi, Tennessee and Delaware in the United States.

These courts meted out justice on the basis of equity and ordered the party concerned either to perform or refrain from performing certain tasks. They refrained from dealing out judgments which involved monetary punitive fines and penalties. They also did not have a jury involved as cases had to be dealt with through the interpretation of the law.

Chancery means a number of things, Buildings where embassies, consulates and such other diplomatic missions are located are sometimes called chancery. The building where such a diplomatic mission is based must be one performing administrative and its diplomatic tasks and not ancillary functions such as a residency or library etc to be a chancery in the proper sense.

Within the structure of the church there are administrative offices of ecclesiastic import which are also called as Chanceries as well, for example an Apostolic Chancery or a diocesan chancery etc.

The most prominent and fitting meaning of chancery is that the word refers to Courts of Chancery that met out justice based on the principles of equity. They differ from normal courts in the sense that the remedies they provide are more practical ordering one or both the parties in a dispute to do or not do a particular task. Normal law courts generally met out justice on a punitive monetary basis.