Chapter 1: Introduction

Generating Legal Issues

- There are laws that answer every question raised by the events of that evening. These include the
Constitution, statutes, administrative orders, and earlier decisions of the Supreme Court
o Even if some materials seem contradictory
- Sometimes much of what is read may no longer be "good law" or no longer the prevailing rule as
the generation and interpretation of law is an on-going process.
o The resolution of the issues means marshalling these sources of law to determine what
the law is on the specific issue that was raised.
- Judicial and quasi-judicial bodies engage in this task on a daily basis. They analyze facts giving rise
to disputes, then determine the law that applies to the controversy. There are techniques that
are applied to this task.
o Techniques include interpreting unclear statutes and appreciating decisions

Legal Method

- Process of arriving at an answer to a legal question; legal analysis

o How to read and think about the law
o How to do legal research
o How to do legal writing
- Also called legal writing, lawyering skills, or legal process
- Concerned with methodology to create, elaborate, and apply substance to law.
- Topics include (Richard Cappalli)
o Techniques for extracting the holding of a case
o Basic distinctions between fact and law
o Understanding what a material fact is
 And its use in finding precedents “distinguishable” or “on point”
o Meaning and application of stare decisis
o When and how courts should overrule precedents
o The relative weight of legal authority
o What are dicta;
 Why is it not an authoritative source of law and how to use it properly;
o Role of courts and legislatures in modernizing law and eliminating obsolete doctrines
o When and how courts should advance the law through ground-breaking precedents
o How doctrine, tradition, and accepted practices channel judicial action
 Controlling arbitrariness
o How broad values like even-handedness and certainty are achieved in legal operations
and how they interact with equity and individualized justice
o Why gaps in the law exist and how courts do and should fill them
o Forms of legal reasoning and their proper uses in the creation, elaboration and application
of legal sources
 Analogical
 Syllogistic
 Deductive
  Inductive
o The interplay of text and purpose in statutory interpretation
o Techniques for ascertaining legislative purpose
o Why and when judicial precedents are applied retroactively compared to the prospective
application of legislation;
o The judicial stretching of legal categories or employment of fictions to accommodate new
instances under established law;
o When is it preferable for law to evolve slowly and incrementally through case law
compared to quickly and comprehensively through legislation;
o The distinction between "adjudicative" and "legislative" (or "policy") facts and their
respective roles;
o The influence of custom in the creation of judicial law;
o The role of community understandings and expectations in the development of law;
o The distinctions between principles and policies and rules and standards;
o the relationship between the reasons that judges advance in support of the rules they
create and the scope of those rules;
o the relative content of stare decisis as applied in the precedent-setting court compared
to those below it
o the technique and uses of prospective overruling;
o the extent to which literal interpretation of statutory texts produces sound results;
o when and how judges should exercise their lawmaking function while respecting
legislative prerogatives;
o identification and utilization of community standards in judicial lawmaking;
o the function and proper use of judicial dissents;
o areas of choice inherent in the judicial lawmaking process;
o the elements of legal craftsmanship in superior opinion and brief writing;
o what role, if any, a judge's personal views on social policy should play in his interpretation
of statutes;
o the proper role of theory imported from affiliated disciplines in solving legal problems

- Legal method illustrates what law is and how it is formed

o Life situations and social settings influence the law through attorneys, legislators, and
judges who determine the law’s content
- Controversies in legal method
o Its neutrality is questioned by feminist theory
o It is viewed as a mechanism for indoctrination
 stare decisis limits the influence of politics in decision making and forces judges
to be bound to past decisions
o The number of schools offering Statutory Construction, Legal Method, or Legal Research
is growing fewer
- Legal method is distinct from statutory construction and legal bibliography
o Statutory construction/interpretation
  The art or process of discovering and expounding the meaning and intention of
the authors of the law with respect to its application to a given case
 Where that intention is rendered doubtful by reason of fact that the given case is
not explicitly covered by the law.
 It is one aspect of legal method
o Legal bibliography
 UP College of Law – development of skills in the use of legal materials and law
library

Chapter 2: Philippine History and the Legal System

Philippine History

- Spain colonized the Philippines for 377 years (1521 – 1898)

o Established a colonial government in 1565 with a civil law system
o Dispute Resolution System
 Gobernadorcillio resolves conflicts on a local level without formal proceeding
 Jurisdiction over civil and petty criminal cases over land
boundaries/ownership
 Alcaldes Mayores takes appeals
 Presides over initial criminal cases and civil suits involving money
 Audiencia Territorial de Manila
 Supreme Court of Manila
- American Period (1898 – 1946)
o Took the Philippines through Treaty of Paris (Dec 10, 1898) from Spain
o Shifted legal system towards common law
 While maintaining elements of civil law and indigenous laws
o Abolished the Audiencia in favor of its own style of judicial system
 Supreme Court, Courts of First Instance, Municipal Courts, Courts of the Justices
of Peace
o Allowed Philippines self-governance
 Drafting of the 1935 Constitution on November

Philippine Legal System – Hybrid System

- Mixture of Civil Law and Common Law systems

o Influenced by colonization by Spain and the US
- Mixture of Islamic law, indigenous systems, Spanish civil law, American common law
o From pre-Spanish to Philippine Republic eras shaped the legal system
o Philippines was occupied by Spain, England, United States, and Japan in the past
- Form of government inspired by the US
o Does not prevent the use of Muslim or indigenous laws
o Acknowledges and accepts customary laws
Muslim Autonomy

- Creation of autonomous regions for accommodation of Muslim demands for governance on

affairs
o Former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)
o Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)
- Conflict in Mindanao is rooted in history
o Resistance against Spanish and American colonizers
o Not all groups recognized the Philippine Republic

Supreme Court in History

- Pre-Marcos
o One of the world’s most independent, important and prestigious Supreme Courts.
o Had the respect and confidence of the people
o Special repository of Filipino’s faith in legitimacy and legality
- Marcos Regime
o Supreme Court was subservient to the President
- 1987 Constitution
o Supreme Court is once again more independent and co-equal

Branches of Government and Judicial Power

- Judiciary
o Judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court and lower courts
 15 justices
o Judiciary is independent of other branches
- Legislative
o Bicameral Congress
 24 Senators
 250 members of the House of representatives
- Executive
o President
o Cabinet secretaries of 19 departments
- Separation of Powers
o Violated if
 One branch interferes with another
 One branch assumes the functions of another
- Supreme Court and judicial power
o May sit in divisions of 3, 5 or 7
o En banc (collectively) acts on: (Internal Rules of the Supreme Court)
 Judicial Review; constitutionality of any statute, order, decree, etc.
 Criminal cases where death penalty or reclusion perpetua is imposed
 Cases of novel questions of law
 Cases affecting ambassadors, public ministers, consuls
 Cases involving CSC, COMELEC, or Commission on Audit
  Cases where penalty involves dismissal or suspension of a judge, disbarment of
lawyer
 Cases regarding reinstatement of dismissed judge or lawyer
 Cases involving discipline of a member of the court or justice
 Cases where doctrine or principle laid down by the court may be modified or
reversed
 Cases involving conflicting decisions between 2 or more divisions
 Cases where 3 votes in a division cannot be obtained
 Division cases where the matter has a huge financial impact on businesses or
affects community welfare
 subject to Section 11 (b) of Rule 2 of A.M. No. 10-4-20-SC,65 other division cases
that, in the opinion of at least three Members of the Division who are voting and
present, are appropriate for transfer to the Court en banc
 cases that the Court en banc deems of sufficient importance to merit its
attention; and
 all matters involving policy decisions in the administrative supervision of all courts
and their personnel.

- Judicial Hierarchy
o 4 levels
 MTC
 Municipal
 Metropolitan
 Municipal in cities
 Municipal Circuit
 Shari’a Circuit Courts
 RTC
 Court of Appeals
 Sandiganbayan
 Court of Tax Appeals
 Shari’a Appellate Court
 Supreme Court

Adjudication and Identification of Rules

- Municipal Law
o Internal, domestic, national laws of the State
o President’s Ordinance Power
 Executive Order
 Rules of general and permanent character
 Administrative Order
 Orders for governmental operations
 General/Special Order
 Acts as Commander-in-Chief
  Proclamations
 Declaration of status of public moment/interest
 Memorandum Order
 Administrative matters on a government office
 Memorandum Circulars
 Internal administration
- Local Ordinances
o Local government issuances
o Requisites for validity
 Must not contravene Constitution or statutes
 Not unfair or oppressive
 Not partial or discriminatory
 Not prohibit but may regulate general trade
 Not unreasonable
 Must be general and consistent with public policy
- International Law
o Treaties, agreements etc.
o Recognized through Declaration of Principles and State Policies in the Constitution

Chapter 5: Case Law and Precedent

Court Decisions as Law (Case Law)

- Decisions have same authority as a statute until authoritatively abandoned

- Considered as “laws” because they are interpretations of what laws mean
o Only Supreme Court decisions are case laws
 Universal in scope, application and mandatory in character

Stare Decisis

- Doctrine where lower courts are bound to follow Supreme Court decisions
o Respect for precedent
- Stare Decisis et non quieta movere
o Stand by the decisions and disturb not what is settled
o Principle originating from Common Law
- Stare Decisis only applies against issues litigated in a previous case
o Does not apply to cases on procedural technicalities
- Encourages private settlement of disputes
o For the sake of efficiency; removes need to waste resources on litigation on similar cases
o Discourages individuals from forum and judge shopping
- Promotes evenhanded, predictable, and consistent development of:
o Legal principles
o Reliance on judicial decisions
o Contributions to actual and perceived integrity of judicial process
- Abandoning stare decisis must be based on strong and compelling reasons
 o E.g. Congress amended law that was basis for a decision, cases where there is conflict
between court decision and law

Res Judicata

- Doctrine that establishes “a matter ajudged”

o End of litigation
o Facts or questions that become res judicata may not be litigated
- Requisites for application:
o Former judgment or order is final
o Judgement/order is based on merits
o Decided by a court having jurisdiction over the subject/parties
o Identity of parties, subject matter, and cause of action in between 1st and 2nd actions
o Elements of res judicata
 Identity of parties with same interest in both actions
 Identity of rights asserted, and relief prayed for
 Relief founded on same facts
 Identity of 2 particulars where any judgment in the other action will result in res
judicata
- Only applies to judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings
o Limited in administrative cases; usually
- Distinct from litis pedentia
o Ground for the dismissal of a civil action which arises where two actions are pending
between the same parties for the same cause of action
 One case/action becomes unnecessary/redundant

Law of the Case

- Whatever is established as a legal principle or decision in a case still applies between the same
parties and in the same case
- General rule
o Decision on a prior appeal is held to be the law of the case in the rehearing
 Regardless if the question/answer was right or wrong
- Embodied Sec. 47 B and C, rule 39 of the Rules of Court
- A decision becomes the law of the case once it attains finality.
- Distinct from res judicata
o In law of the case, first judgment is generally not yet final.
o Law of the case only applies on one case
 Res judicata applies to multiple, different cases

Problems with Precedent

- Inconsistencies
o Supreme Court decisions do not always clarify issues
 E.g. rape done within a romantic relationship is “not possible”
o Judicial Flip-Flopping
 Justices can’t agree on what the correct interpretation of law must be
Chapter 6: Analytical Reasoning

Application of Law

- Done through Deduction and Analogy

Deduction

- Reasoning from enacted law (i.e. statues, regulations, executive orders)

o Enactment of a rule usually precedes any case
- Starting point of reasoning is the rule and not the case
o Judges do not have discretion in applying rules laid down by other branches of
government
 Only task is to interpret
- Syllogism as dominant style of legal reasoning
o Structure of syllogism:
 Major and minor premise
 Conclusion
o Major premise as rule of law applicable
o Minor premise describes the facts
o Conclusion states the general rule applicable to a situation

Analogy

- Form of logic where:

o If 2 things are alike in one aspect
o Then they are alike in at least one other aspect
- Used in cases where facts are similar to previous cases
o “in point” Mcfadzean
- Uses a case to decide another specifically similar case
- Advantageous because:
o Produces wealth of data for decision making
o Represents collaborative effort of judges over time
o Tends to correct biases that might lead to judges disregarding previous decisions
o Exerts a conservative force in law
 Development of law in a gradual pace