Chancery Amendment Act 1858

Chancery Amendment Act 1858^[1]

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to amend the course of procedure in the High Court of Chancery, the Court of Chancery in Ireland, and the Court of Chancery of the county palatine of Lancaster.
Citation	21 & 22 Vict. c. 27
Introduced by	Hugh Cairns
Territorial extent	United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent	28 June 1858[2]
Commencement	1 October 1858
Other legislation
Repealed by	Supreme Court Act 1981
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Chancery Amendment Act 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. 27) also known as Lord Cairns' Act after Sir Hugh Cairns, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allowed the English Court of Chancery, the Irish Chancery and the Chancery Court of the County Palatine of Lancaster to award damages, in addition to their previous function of awarding injunctions and specific performance. The Act also made several procedural changes to the Chancery courts, most notably allowing them to call a jury, and allowed the Lord Chancellor to amend the practice regulations of the courts. By allowing the Chancery courts to award damages it narrowed the gap between the common law and equity courts and accelerated the passing of the Judicature Act 1873, and for that reason has been described by Ernest Pollock as "prophetic".^[3]

After the English Court of Chancery was dissolved by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 the Act lost relevance, and in England and Wales it was gradually repealed by a succession of acts up to the 1880s. The Supreme Court of Judicature (Ireland) Act 1877, which reorganised the Superior Courts in Ireland to create the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, similarly reduced the relevance of the Act in the Republic of Ireland.