CHAPTER 2: SOURCES OF LAW  Reformation of contracts

 Implied Trusts
Main sources of PH Law
- Constitution – fundamental law of the land o RPC
- Statutes – intended to supply details; to provide rules and regulations o Code of Commerce
that govern conduct of people  December 1, 1888; from Spanish Code of Commerce
- Treaties and Conventions – compact made bet. 2 or more independent (1885)
nations for public welfare
- Juridical decisions – Civil Code provides that judicial decisions applying o Administrative Code
to/interpreting laws/Consti shall form part of the legal system; SC o National Internal Revenue Code
decisions o Election Code
- Customary Law o Tariff and Customs Code
o 1987 Consti provides that the State shall recognize, respect and o Code of Agrarian Reforms
protect rights of indigenous cultural communities to preserve o Land Transportation and Traffic Code
their culture/trad o National Building Code
o 1899 old Civil Code – where no statute is applicable in a o Revised Forestry Code
controversy, the custom of the place shall be applied o Cooperative Code
o Labor Code
Philippine Statutes  Protection to workers, promote employment and HR
- 1900-1935 – Acts dev’t, social justice on industry
- 1935-1941 – Commonwealth Acts  7 Books:
- 1946-1972 – Republic Acts  Pre-Employment
- 1972-1986 – Presidential Decrees; Batas Pambansa o Recruitment, placement, employment
- 1986-1987 – Executive Orders  Human Resources Development
- 1987-present – Republic Acts o Manpower dev’t program,
apprenticeship
- 29 CODES:  Conditions of Employment
o Civil Code o Hours, wages, employment of women
 Drafted by Code Commission and effected on July 1, o Normal hrs of work: 8hrs/day with
1950, replacing Spanish Code (1889) 60mins time off for meals
 4 Books: Persons, Property, Different Modes of Acquiring  Health, Safety, Social Welfare Benefits
Ownership, and Obligations and Contracts  Labor Relations
 From 1,976 articles to 2,270 articles included new rules o NLRC (DOLE), unfair labor practices,
to incorporate Filipino customs and rights termination, etc
 Elimination of absolute divorce & dowry  Post-Employment – security of tenure,
 Creation of judicial/extrajudicial family homes termination, closure
 Human Rights  Transitory and Final Provisions – offenses,
 Provision on quieting of title claims
 Holographic will revived
 Successional Rights o National Code of Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes
 Defective Contracts reclassified o Insurance Code
o Child and Youth Welfare Code  Grounds for annulment (+psychological
 Effected on June 10, 1975 incapacity)
 Applied to persons below 21 age  Allows Filipinos divorced from a marriage
 Rights & responsibilities of child abroad to remarry under PH
 Parental authority, adoption, rights, duties, liabilities of  Property relations between spouses from
parents, foster care, youth welfare, special categories of conjugal partnership of gains to absolute
children, youthful offenders community of property
 R.A. No. 7610 (1992) – Special Protection of Children  Child classification: legitimate, illegitimate,
Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act adopted
 Implements UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child (July 1990) o PH Fisheries Code of 1998
o Intellectual Property Code
o Sanitation Code o Securities Regulation Code
o Water Code
o Philippine Environment Code
o Muslim Code of Personal Laws MESTIZO: Story of the PH Legal System (by Pacifico A. Agabin)
 February 4, 1977 – concern for national cultural
communities
 Marriage (nikah), divorce (talaq), paternity and filiation, Nick Joaquin’s The Woman Who Had Two Navels
support (nafaqa), parental authority, civil registry, - Allegory of Mother PH culture heritage from 2 sources: Spanish &
succession and shari’a courts, jurisdiction American
- Also, two strands of law subsisting side by side: Western Law & Islamic
o Fire Code Law
o Coconut Industry Code
o Corporation Code PH Legal System
 Main forms of PH business orgs: sole proprietorships,
- Hybrid of Civil Law (Spanish) and Common Law (Anglo-American)
partnerships and corpo
- Difference between British-and-American-influenced mixed
 Securities and Exchange Commission administers corpo,
jurisdictions
branch offices and partnerships
 Sole Prop. – requisites such as registering name with - PH Civil Law – turbulent monogamy with American law
Bureau of Domestic Trade, obtaining permit, reg fee & o Child of turbulent monogamy is a hybrid  “mestizo
privilege tax. - The result of cross-breeding common and civil law systems
- Legal Mestizo – civilian system that had been under the pressure from
Anglo-American common law and has been overlaid by that rival
o Omnibus Investments Code of 1987 system of jurisprudence
o State Auditing Code - Heterosis – when a hybrid emerges superior to its parents
o Local Gov’t Code o How Administrative Law & Martial Law (mutants) have
o Family Code evolved in a Third World setting
 Effected on August 3, 1988
 Amended Civil Code provisions on marriage and the
family
STUDYING LEGAL HISTORY

Why do we include culture in our study of legal history?

- Because law is both FACT and ARTIFACT
o Law is merely one aspect of our culture – that which employs
the force of organized society to regulate conduct and
prevent/punish deviations from prescribed social norms
o Law as a form of social control
o Culture as patterns of learned behaviour, distinguished from
instinctual behaviour of animals
o Anatole France: what distinguishes man from animals is lying
& literature
 Lying and literature are essential parts of legal culture
o John Henry Merryman: study of legal system includes a study
of legal penetration, legal extension, legal structures, actors,
processes = legal culture.
o Legal Culture – those historically conditioned, deeply rooted
attitudes about the nature of the law and the proper structure
& operation of a legal system in a society
o Legal Penetration – extent to which legal rules have been
accepted by people as part of their lives