H. Smith指出：

法律的簡(jiǎn)單結(jié)構(gòu)容易被投機(jī)者利用……傳統(tǒng)上，衡平法關(guān)注的是“欺詐邊緣行為”（ “near fraud”），即接近欺詐界限、或很可能構(gòu)成欺詐但無(wú)法被證實(shí)為欺詐的行為。

……傳統(tǒng)衡平法的一個(gè)重要主題是打擊機(jī)會(huì)主義行為。為此，衡平法需要超越事前明確的規(guī)則（the ex ante bright line rules），因?yàn)楹茈y預(yù)料到所有規(guī)避的途徑。

如果所有規(guī)避者都能輕易地鉆過(guò)第十個(gè)漏洞，那么堵住十個(gè)漏洞中的九個(gè)也是徒勞的。衡平法采用事后道德標(biāo)準(zhǔn)（ex post moral standards），強(qiáng)調(diào)善意和告知，以道德為依據(jù)進(jìn)行推理，其規(guī)則常常模糊而非明確。為了限制這種強(qiáng)大的工具，衡平法院只能對(duì)人而非對(duì)物的方式運(yùn)用這些規(guī)則（in personam and not in rem），而且衡平法的實(shí)質(zhì)原則也告誡人們謹(jǐn)慎以避免削弱法律。衡平法并非旨在根除一切機(jī)會(huì)主義行為，法院也認(rèn)識(shí)到，除非法院保持警惕并阻止衡平法的不當(dāng)介入，否則衡平法的原則和救濟(jì)措施（尤其是禁令）本身可能會(huì)被機(jī)會(huì)主義的訴訟人利用。

我的簡(jiǎn)評(píng)：

1.

衡平法的規(guī)則主要體現(xiàn)為一種事后規(guī)則而非事前的規(guī)則。因擔(dān)心某些行為包含濫用規(guī)則的可能性就一律禁止之，效率是低下的。普通法和衡平法是一體兩面，都采取能行為發(fā)生之后再予以補(bǔ)救的事后策略（ex post strategy）。

2.

衡平法是對(duì)人（in personam ）發(fā)揮作用的。簡(jiǎn)言之，是在個(gè)案中發(fā)揮作用的。

3.

衡平法的規(guī)則是抽象的（原文用語(yǔ)是“模糊的”）。需要法官在個(gè)案中裁量行使，對(duì)法官提出了很高的要求。

附原文：

The simple structures of the law are open to exploitation by opportunists . . . Traditionally equity concerned itself with 'near fraud', which is behaviour that is close to the line of fraud or may well be fraud but cannot be proved as such. .

..A major theme of traditional equity was to counteract opportunism. To do so equity needs to go beyond the ex ante bright line rules, because it is difficult to anticipate all the avenues of evasion.

Plugging nine out of ten loopholes is hopeless if all the evaders can rush through the tenth. Equity employs ex post moral standards, emphasizes good faith and notice, couches its reasoning in terms of morals, and is sometimes vague rather than bright line. To cabin such a powerful tool, equity courts were only supposed to act in personam and not in rem, and the substantive doctrines of equity counselled caution in undermining the law. Equity was not designed to root out every last bit of opportunism and courts recognized that equitable doctrines and remedies, not least injunctions, themselves could be exploited by opportunistic litigants unless courts were on their guard and were willing to stay the hand of equity.

H. Smith, "Property, Equity, and the Rule of Law，in L. Austin and D. Klimchuk (eds), Private Law and the Rule of Law (Oxford University Press, 2014), pp.232-233.

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