Equity

A system of law designed to furnish remedies for wrongs which were not legally recognized under the common law of England or for which no adequate remedy was provided by the common law. (2) Another word for stock (or similar securities representing an ownership interest). (3) The amount by which a entity's assets exceed its liabilities.

An accounting term used to describe the net investment of owners or stockholders in a business. Under the accounting equation, equity also represents the result of assets less liabilities.

A branch of English law which developed hundreds of years ago when litigants would go to the King and complain of harsh or inflexible rules of common law which prevented justice from prevailing. - (read more on Equity)
  

Generally, justice or fairness. Historically, equity refers to aseparate body of law developed in England in reaction to the inability of thecommon law courts, in their strict adherence to rigid writs and forms ofaction, to consider or provide a remedy for every injury. The king thereforeestablished the court of chancery to do justice between parties in cases wherethe common law would give inadequate redress. The principle of thisjurisprudence is that equity will find a way to achieve a lawful result whenlegal procedure is inadequate. Equity and law courts are now merged in mostjurisdictions, though equity jurisprudence and equitable doctrines are stillindependently viable.