General Principles in Statutory

Construction
This is for Pan and the freshman law students who thought Statutory Construction's difficult! Just wanna help you
guys, this made it a lot easier for me.
1.

Statutes must be read and construed as a whole.

2.

Legislative intent must be ascertained from the statute as a whole.

3.

Courts have the duty to reconcile or harmonize the different provisions of the statute, including the
conflicting provisions thereof.

4.

As a rule, statute of later date prevails.

5.

Generalia specialibus non derogant.

6.

A special law prevails over a general law.

7.

In Pari Materia Rule.

8.

In interpreting reenacted statutes, the court will follow the construction which such statute previously
received.

9.

In case of adopted statutes, the interpretation of the courts of the state from which it is adopted should be
considered and respected.

10. In case of conflict between a common law principle and a statutory principle, the latter prevails.

And as defined by Caltex Philippines, Inc. v. Palomar, L-19650, September 29, 1966, "statutory
construction is the act or process of discovering and expounding the meaning and intention of the authors of the
law with respect to its application in a given case, where that intention is rendered doubtful among others, by
reason of the fact that the given case is not explicitly provided for in the law."