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3. Local Law – relates or operates over a particular locality instead of Statues or act may be said to be vague when it lacks comprehensible
over the whole territory of the state. standards those men “of common intelligence must necessarily guess at
its meaning and differ as to its application.
4. Public Law – a general classification of law, consisting generally of Statute is repugnant to the Constitution in two (2) respects:
constitutional, administrative, criminal, and international law, 1. It violates due process for failure to accord persons fair notice of
concerned with the organization of the state, the relations between conduct to avoid; and
the state and the people who compose it, the responsibilities of public 2. It leaves law enforcers unbridled discretions.
officers of the state, to each other, and to private persons, and the
relations of state to one another. Public law may be general, local or The Supreme Court held that the “vagueness” doctrine merely requires a
special law. reasonable degree of certainty for the statute to be upheld--- not absolute
precision or mathematical exactitude. Flexibility, rather than meticulous
5. Private Law – defines, regulates, enforces and administers specificity, is permissible as long as the metes and bounds of the statute
relationships among individuals, associations and corporations. are clearly delineated

6. Remedial Statute – providing means or method whereby causes of

action may be affectuated, wrongs redressed and relief obtained. REPEALS OF STATUTE MAY BE EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED
7. Curative Statute – a form of retrospective legislation which reaches Express repeal – is the abrogation or annulling of a previously existing
back into the past to operate upon past events, acts or transactions in law by the enactment of a subsequent statute which declares that the
order to correct errors and irregularities and to render valid and former law shall be revoked and abrogated.
effective many attempted acts which would otherwise be ineffective for
the purpose intended. Implied repeal – when a later statute contains provisions so contrary to
irreconcilable with those of the earlier law that only one of the two
8. Penal Statute – defines criminal offenses specify corresponding fines statutes can stand in force.
and punishments.
The repeal of a penal law deprives the court of jurisdiction to punish
9. Prospective Law – applicable only to cases which shall arise after its persons charged with a violation of the old penal law prior to its repeal.
enactment.
Only a law can repeal a law.
10. Retrospective Law – looks backward or contemplates the past; one
which is made to affect acts or facts occurring, or rights occurring, The intention to repeal must be clear and manifest, otherwise, at least,
before it came into force. as a general rule, the later act is to be construed as a continuation of,
and not a substitute for, the first act.
11. Affirmative Statute – directs the doing of an act, or declares what
shall be done in contrast to a negative statute which is one that Two (2) categories of repeal by implication:
prohibits the things from being done, or declares what shall not be 1. Where provision in the two acts on the same subject matter are in an
done. irreconcilable conflict;
2. If the later act covers the whole subject of the earlier one and is
12. Mandatory Statutes – generic term describing statutes which require clearly intended as a substitute – to be a complete and perfect system
and not merely permit a course of action. in itself.

CONCEPT OF VAGUE STATUTES ORDINANCE

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Ordinance – an act passed by the local legislative body in the exercise of

its law-making authority.

TEST OF VALID ORDINANCE CHAPTER III

1. Must not contravene the Constitution or any statute;
BASIC GUIDELINES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND
2. Must not be unfair or oppressive; INTERPRETATION OF LAWS
3. Must not be partial or discriminatory;
4. Must not prohibit but may regulate trade;
5. Must be general and consistent with public policy; and
6. Must not be unreasonable. LEGISLATIVE INTENT

The object of all interpretation and construction of statutes is to

REASON WHY AN ORDINANCE SHOULD NOT ascertain the meaning and intention of the legislature, to the end that
CONTRAVENE A STATUTE the same may be enforced.

Local councils exercise only delegated legislative powers conferred on Legislative intent is determined principally from the language of the
them by Congress as the national law making body. statute.
VERBA LEGIS
The delegate cannot be superior to the principal.
If the language of the statute is plain and free from ambiguity, and
express a single, definite, and sensible meaning, that meaning is
ROLE OF FOREIGN JURISPRUDENCE conclusively presumed to be the meaning which the legislature intended
to convey.
Philippine laws must necessarily be construed in accordance with the
intention of its own law makers and such intent may be deduced from
the language of each law and the context of other local legislation related STATUTES AS A WHOLE
thereof.
A cardinal rule in statutory construction is that legislative intent must be
ascertained from a consideration of the statute as a whole and not
merely of a particular provision. A word or phrase might easily convey a
meaning which is different from the one actually intended.

A statute should be construed as a whole because it is not to be

presumed that the legislature has used any useless words, and because
it is dangerous practice to base the construction upon only a part of it,
since one portion may be qualified by other portions.

SPIRIT AND PURPOSE OF THE LAW

When the interpretation of a statute according to the exact and literal

import of its words would lead to absurd or mischievous consequences,
or would thwart or contravene the manifest purpose of the legislature in

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its enactment, it should be construed according to its spirit and reason,

disregarding or modifying, so far as may be necessary, the strict letter of
the law.

• When the reason of the law ceases, the law itself ceases. CHAPTER IV
CONSTRUCTION AND INTERPRETATION OF
• Doctrine of necessary implications. What is implied in a statute is as
much a part thereof as that which is expressed. WORDS AND PHRASES

CASUS OMISSUS
WHEN THE LAW DOES NOT DISTINGUISH, COURTS
When a statute makes specific provisions in regard to several SHOULD NOT DISTINGUISH
enumerated cases or objects, but omits to make any provision for a case
or object which is analogous to those enumerated, or which stands upon When the law does not distinguish, courts should not distinguish. The
the same reason, and is therefore within the general scope of the statute, rule, founded on logic, is a corollary of the principle that general words
and it appears that such case or object was omitted by inadvertence or and phrases of a statute should ordinarily be accorded their natural and
because it was overlooked or unforeseen, it is called a “casus omissus”. general significance.
Such omissions or defects cannot be supplied by the courts.
The courts should administer the law not as they think it ought to be but
The rule of “casus omissus pro omisso habendus est” can operate and as they find it and without regard to consequences.
apply only if and when the omission has been clearly established.

• If the law makes no distinction, neither should the Court.

STARE DECISIS

It is the doctrine that, when court has once laid down a principle, and EXCEPTIONS IN THE STATUTE
apply it to all future cases, where facts are substantially the same,
regardless of whether the parties and properties are the same. When the law does not make any exception, courts may not except
something unless compelling reasons exist to justify it.

Stare Decisis. Follow past precedents and do not disturb what has been
settled. Matters already decided on the merits cannot be relitigated GENERAL AND SPECIAL TERMS
again and again.
General terms in a statute are to receive a general construction, unless
“Stare decisis et non quieta movere” (follow past precedents and do not retrained by the context or by plain inferences from the scope and
disturb what has been settled. purpose of the act.

General terms or provisions in a statute may be restrained and limited

by specific terms or provisions with which they are associated.

Special terms in a statute may sometimes be expanded to a general

signification by the consideration that the reason of the law is general.

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