The Court of Chancery was a
court of equity in
England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the
common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including
trusts,
land law, the administration of the estates of lunatics and the guardianship of infants. Its initial role was somewhat different, however; as an extension of the
Lord Chancellor's role as Keeper of the King's Conscience, the Court was an administrative body primarily concerned with
conscientious law. Thus the Court of Chancery had a far greater remit than the common law courts, whose decisions it had the jurisdiction to overrule for much of its existence, and was far more flexible. Until the 19th century, the Court of Chancery could apply a far wider range of remedies than the common law courts, such as
specific performance and
injunctions, and also had some power to grant
damages in special circumstances. With the shift of the
Exchequer of Pleas towards a common law court, the Chancery was the only equitable body in the English legal system. (
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The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches to begin the
STS-132 mission in May 2010. STS-132 was initially scheduled to be the final flight of Atlantis, but it later flew on
STS-135—the last mission of the
Space Shuttle program—in July 2011.
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