Development of Common Law Early common law was somewhat
inflexible; it would not adjudicate a case that did not fall
precisely under the purview of a particular writ and had an
unwieldy set of procedural rules. Except for a few types of
lawsuits in which the object was to recover real or personal
property, the only remedy provided was money damages; the body
of legal principles known as equity evolved partly to overcome
these deficiencies. Until comparatively recent times there was a
sharp division between common law (or legal jurisprudence) and
equity (or equitable jurisprudence). In 1848 the state of New
York enacted a code of civil procedure (drafted by David Dudley
Field) that merged law and equity into one jurisdiction.
Thenceforth, actions at law and suits in equity were to be
administered in the same courts and under the same procedure.
The Field code reforms were adopted by most states of the United
States, by the federal government, and by Great Britain (in the
Judicature Act of 1873). Sections in th