Clean Hands
An equitable maxim: 'he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.' A person seeking an equitable remedy must not themselves have acted unconscionably or inequitably in relation to the matter.
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
The maxim was tested directly in High Court litigation between the Secretary of State for Transport and HS2 Ltd on one side and protestors occupying land connected to the HS2 rail project on the other, where the defendants argued the claimants did not come to equity 'with clean hands' and that an injunction should be refused on that ground alone. The judge declined to accept the argument, holding that the doctrine is tightly circumscribed and is not a 'magic wand' which can be waved by a Defendant to a claim for an injunction who can identify any type of wrong done by the Claimant.
The judgment quotes the Court of Appeal's explanation in Royal Bank of Scotland v Highland Financial Partners of just how narrow the doctrine is: paraphrasing Lord Chief Baron Eyre in the historic case of Dering v Earl of Winchelsea, the misconduct or impropriety of the claimant must have 'an immediate and necessary relation to the equity sued for'. In other words, a claimant's unrelated bad conduct — even serious unlawful conduct elsewhere — will not by itself defeat their claim to an equitable remedy; the impropriety has to connect directly to the very right or relief being claimed.
This narrow scope means clean hands operates as a genuine limitation on equitable remedies (injunctions, specific performance and similar relief) but is not a general licence for a defendant to put the claimant's overall conduct or character on trial.
Example
A landowner seeking an injunction to remove trespassers cannot usually be defeated by clean hands just because the landowner separately behaved badly towards its own contractors — the alleged impropriety would need to relate directly to the right to possession being enforced.
Related terms
Official sources
This explanation is drawn from the official sources below; every substantive statement is verified against them. For advice on a specific matter, see our find help page.