text: Thanks for bringing the concepts of "epikeia" and "courts of chancery"  into the discussion.  The new words sent me to a search, which is helping me understand the mindset of the cardinals who are having so much trouble with Amoris Laetitia and the mindset of those who really do like the recognition in AL's teaching that all situation are not reducible to a set of rules.  Life really is messy.
  
  EPIKEIA:  "A term derived from the Greek ἐπιείκεια, meaning reasonableness, has undergone a development in moral theology. According to most manuals of theology epikeia is a restrictive interpretation of positive law based on the benign will of the legislator who would not want to bind his subjects in certain circumstances. Recently, theologians have referred to the Thomistic notion of the virtue of epikeia. In a concrete situation the individual invoking a higher law acts against the letter of an imperfect positive law."  http://www.encyclopedia.com