Common Law, Equity and Statute: A Complex Entangled System

Using Judge of Appeal Mark Leeming's fascinating work on sources of law as a springboard, this review essay makes three sweeping claims about the different sources of law in Australia that that work analyses. First, that judge -made law without statutory foundation, our law in common, has a different nature that may justify its continuing existence in uncodified form. Second, that equitable rules have a different formal structure that explains why they often differ from those at common law. Third, that although a common law of Australia is possible, it is still too soon to say whether that has been achieved.