Introduction to Law

Monday, 24 July 2023 9:40 pm

Introduction to Law
The General Nature of Law

LAW (in general)

• any rule of action or any system of uniformity.
• determines not only the activities of men as rational beings but also the movements or motions of all objects of
creation, whether animate or inanimate.

General divisions of law.

(1) Law (in the strict legal sense) (2) Law (in the non-legal sense)
promulgated and enforced by the state; not promulgated and enforced by the state.

state law divine law, natural law, moral law, and physical law.

Subjects of law.
State law, divine law, natural - are comprised in the definition of law as a rule of action.
law, and moral law
- apply to men as rational beings only.

physical law - operates on all things, including men, without regard to the latter's use of their
will power and intelligence.

- It is called law only figuratively speaking.

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DIVINE LAW
• is the law of religion and faith
• concerns with the concept of sin (as contrasted with crime) and salvation.
(1) Source → formally promulgated by God and revealed or divulged to mankind by means of direct
revelation.
a. Christians - Under the Old Testament, divine law is embodied in the Ten Commandments.
○ these laws were formally given by God through Moses, the great Hebrew prophet
and leader.

b. Mohammedans - divine law is embodied in the Muslim Quoran.

○ Of course, divine law differs according to what one believes to have been
established and communicated to mankind by revelation.

(2) Sanction. lies in the assurance of certain rewards and punishments in the present life or in the life to
come.

NATURAL LAW
• the divine inspiration in man of the sense of justice, fairness, and righteousness, not by divine revelation or
formal promulgation, but by internal dictates of reason alone.
(1) Binding → is ever present and binding on all men everywhere and at all times.
force. • There is in every man a basic understanding of right and wrong based on an
understanding of the fundamental standard or criterion of good and evil.
○ there are some acts or conduct which man knows in his heart and his conscience,
not by theorizing, but by the dictates of his moral nature, are simply good or bad or
evil.

• We know that killing for the sake of killing or stealing for the sake of stealing is bad or evil
because it is contrary to what we believe is just, fair or righteous.
○ When we speak of this inward instinct of justice, fairness and righteousness in man as
divinely inspired by the dictates of his higher nature, we are talking about natural
law or the law of nature.

(2) Natural law and divine law are NOT the same.
Compared to • Divine law - as the law of religious faith, is made known to man by means of direct

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 Compared to • Divine law - as the law of religious faith, is made known to man by means of direct
divine law revelation.

• Natural law - is said to be impressed in man as the core of his higher self at the very
moment of being or, perhaps, even before that.

(3) Place in has been regarded as the reasonable basis of state law.
state law.

MORAL LAW
• the totality of the norms of good and right conduct growing out of the collective sense of right and wrong of
every community.
(1) → At a comparatively early stage of their existence human beings learned that it was good
Determination for the welfare of the group that the privilege to determine what is right and what is wrong was
of what is right not left to each member of the group.
and wrong.
→ The mores or ways of life were then evolved which were always considered right and
correct, and obedience to them was demanded by the group.

(2) Sanction → As distinguished from state law, there is no definite legal sanction (punishment imposed by
law like imprisonment and/or payment of fines or damages) for violation of purely moral law

• If a member of the community disregards the moral norms, a spontaneous social

reaction is produced in the form of public displeasure, contempt or even indignation.
• If, on the other hand, there is conformity to the moral norms, there is created
spontaneous social response which may be in the form of public pleasure, approval or
even joy.

(3) Binding → Moral law is not absolute.

force
→ It varies with the changing times, conditions or convictions of the people.

• Polygamy is considered immoral (it is also a crime) in the Philippines, whereas, it is

allowed in some parts of the world.
• Today's fashions in women's dress are socially allowed but at different times, they would
have been morally condemned.

(4) Place in → influences or shapes state law.

state law.

PHYSICAL LAW
• laws of physical science or physical law.
• In the operation or course of nature, there are uniformities of actions and orders of sequence which are the
physical phenomena that we sense and feel.
(1) Order or → law: being addressed to objects which have no power to disobey, is in reality nothing more
regularity in than an order or regularity in nature by which certain results follow certain causes.
nature.
(2) Called law → this order or regularity is called law only by analogy.
only by
analogy. • Examples of physical law are many. The more conspicuous ones are the law of
gravitation and the law of chemical combination.

STATE LAW
• The kind of law, however, which particularly concerns us in this work is the state law or the law that is
promulgated and enforced by the state.
(1) Other terms → positive law, municipal law, civil law, or imperative law.
used.
• the law that we refer to when we speak of law in connection with obligations and
contracts, marriage, the administration of justice, the conduct of elections, and the
entire governmental process itself.

(2) Binding → As a rule of action, only state law is enforced by the state, with the aid of its physical force,

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 (2) Binding → As a rule of action, only state law is enforced by the state, with the aid of its physical force,
force. if necessary.

(3) Concern of → The fields of state law are different from those of divine law, natural law, and moral law.
state law
→ State law does not concern itself with violations of the latter rules of action unless they also
constitute violations of its commands.

• A full examination of:

○ divine law properly belongs to the fields of philosophical theology;
○ natural law, to metaphysics;
○ moral law, to ethics;
○ physical law, to physical science or physics.

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Concepts of (state) law.

1. in the → refers to all the laws taken together.
general or
abstract → "the mass of obligatory rules established for the purpose of governing the relations of
sense persons in society."

• "law of the land,"

• "rule of law and not of men,"
• "equality before the law,"
• "enforcement of the law," etc.

2. in the → "a rule of conduct, just, obligatory, promulgated by legitimate authority, and of common
specific or observance and benefit."
material
sense. → It has this second connotation when we refer to a particular statute or legal rule,
• e.g., the law on obligations and contracts.

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Characteristics of law.
(in its specific sense) are:
1. It is a rule of conduct.
○ Law tells us what shall be done and what shall not be done.
○ As a rule of human conduct, law takes cognizance of external acts only;

2. It is obligatory.
○ Law is considered a positive command imposing a duty to obey and involving a sanction which forces
obedience;

3. It is promulgated by legitimate authority.

○ In a democratic country, like the Philippines, the legitimate or competent authority is the legislature.
▪ Under the Constitution,
□ Congress
 the legislative branch of our government;
□ Statutes
 laws that are enacted by Congress
□ local government units
 are also empowered to enact ordinances which have the binding force of laws;

4. It is of common observance and benefit.

○ Law is intended by man to serve man.
○ It regulates the relations of men to maintain harmony in society and to make order and co-existence
possible.
○ Law must be observed by all for the benefit of all.

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Necessity and functions of law.

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Necessity and functions of law.
1. What would life be without law?
○ If we can answer this question, we can answer the more basic question of whether law is necessary. If life
without law would be the same as it is now, obviously law is not necessary.
○ Society comes into existence because its members could not live without it. The need for internal order is
as constant as the need for external defense. No society can be stable in which either of these
requirements fails to be provided for.

2. What does law do?

○ secures justice, resolves social conflict, orders society, protects interests, controls social relations.
○ Life without basic laws against theft, violence, and destruction would be solitary, nasty, brutish, and short.
○ Life without other laws such as those regulating traffic, sanitation, employment, business, redress of harm or
of broken agreements, etc.- would be less orderly, less healthful, less wholesome, etc.

3. What is our duty as members of society?

○ No society can last and continue without means of social control, without rules of social order binding on
its members.
○ The sum of such rules as existing in a given society, under whatever particular forms, is what, in common
speech, we understand by law or is also referred to as the legal system. Since we find law necessary,
every citizen should have some understanding of law and observe it for the common good.

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Sources of law
1. CONSTITUTION → "the written instrument by which the fundamental powers of the government are
established, limited, and defined, and by which these powers are distributed among the
several departments for their safe and useful exercise for the benefit of the people."

→ often referred to as the fundamental law or supreme law or highest law of the land
• because it is promulgated by the people themselves, binding on all individual citizens
and all agencies of the government.

→ law to which all other laws enacted by the legislature must conform.
• administrative or executive acts,
• orders and regulations having the force of law

→ laws which are declared by the courts to be inconsistent with the Constitution shall be VOID
and the latter shall govern. (see Art. 7, Civil Code)

2. LEGISLATION → consists in the declaration of legal rules by a competent authority.

→ the preponderant source of law in the Philippines.

→ Acts passed by the legislature are so-called enacted law or statute law.

→ includes ordinances enacted by local governments units.

3. ADMINISTRATIVE → those issued by administrative officials under legislative authority.

OR EXECUTIVE
ORDERS, • Administrative rules and regulations
REGULATIONS ○ are intended to clarify or explain the law and carry into effect its general provisions.
AND RULINGS
• Administrative acts
○ are valid only when they are not contrary to the laws and the Constitution. (Art. 7,
Civil Code)

4. JUDICIAL → The decisions of the courts: Supreme Court, applying or interpreting the laws or the
DECISIONS OR Constitution form part of the legal system of the Philippines. (Art. 8, Ibid)
JURISPRUDENCE
• The doctrine of precedent or stare decisis.
○ The decisions of a superior court on a point of law are binding on all subordinate
courts.

→ The Supreme Court may reverse or modify any of its previous rulings.
• Until then, the decisions of the Supreme Court applying or interpreting the laws or the
Constitution are "laws" by their own right because they declare what the laws say or

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 Constitution are "laws" by their own right because they declare what the laws say or
mean.

→ Unlike rulings of the lower courts, which bind the parties to specific cases alone, its
judgments are applied to all.

5. CUSTOM → consists of those habits and practices which through long and uninterrupted usage have
become acknowledged and approved by society as binding rules of conduct.

→ has the force of law when recognized and enforced by the state.
• in a contract for services rendered where no definite compensation is stipulated, the
compensation to be paid may be ascertained from customs and usages of the place.

→ must be proved as a fact according to the rules of evidence. (infra.) (Art. 12, Civil Code.)

→ may be applied by the courts in the absence of law or statute exactly applicable to the
point in controversy.
• But customs which are contrary to law, public order or public policy are not
countenanced.

6. OTHER SOURCES → To the above may be added principles of justice and equity, decisions of foreign tribunals,
opinions of textwriters, and religion.

→ only supplementary,
• they are resorted to by the courts in the absence of all the other sources.

→ not binding on the courts.

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Rule in case of doubt in interpretation or application of laws.

• Art. 9-10, Civil Code:
○ "no judge or court shall decline to render judgment by reason of the:
▪ silence,
▪ obscurity or
▪ insufficiency of the laws."

○ "In case of doubt in the interpretation or application of laws,

▪ it is presumed that the lawmaking body intended right and justice to prevail."

• In our country, courts are not only courts of law but also of justice.
○ Faced with a choice between a decision that will serve justice and another that will deny it because of a
too strict interpretation of the law, courts must resolve in favor of the former, for the ultimate end of the law
is justice.
○ This is particularly true where what is at stake is the life, liberty, or property of an individual, and more so if
he is poor or disadvantaged.

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Organs of social control.

• Law is not an end in itself.
• may be viewed as a means of social control
○ the control of social behavior that affects others.

• In modern pluralistic societies, there are many organs of social control.

○ In the Philippines, in addition to legal institutions - national and local- there are:
▪ churches, corporations, political parties, trade associations, schools, labor unions, professional
organizations, social clubs, families, and host of others.
□ Such organizations, through rules, regulations and orders, control some of the behavior of their
members.

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Law compared with other means of social control.

1. Laws are made and administered by the only institutions in society authorized to act in behalf of the entire
citizenry.

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 citizenry.
○ Churches act only for their members;

2. Only the legal institutions within the society can make rules, regulations and orders with which the entire
citizenry must comply.
○ The rules, etc., of social and economic organizations, for example, govern only limited numbers;

3. People associated with an organization can ordinarily terminate their relationship and thereby free themselves
from the impact of its rules and regulations.
○ Citizens of a state cannot do this unless they choose to leave the geographical area in which the state is
sovereign;

4. The sanctions or techniques of control through law are more varied and complex than the techniques
available to organizations such as churches, labor unions, and political parties.
○ Expulsion is usually the most powerful technique available to such organizations to secure compliance
with their rules, etc.
▪ For the employee, it is the loss of his job.

○ Aside from imprisonment and deportation, there are many other sanctions available to the law, including
▪ denial or revocation of license,
▪ confiscation of property,
▪ imposition of civil liability for certain kind of conduct,
▪ dissolution of organizations, and
▪ denial of privileges.

○ A sanction is remedial if the object is the indemnification of the person who has suffered damages or injury
from a violation of law, and penal if the object is the punishment of the violator;

5. Before the law "operates" against an individual, various procedural steps are required.
○ Thus, the individual must ordinarily be given a hearing and a fair opportunity to show why he should not,
▪ for example, be ordered to pay money to a claimant, or be deprived of his liberty.

○ referred to as "due process" of law.

○ Organs of social control other than those provided by law are generally not required to comply with such
procedures in acting against individuals except when their rules provide therefor. (Ibid., pp. 43-44.)

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Organization of courts.
• Under the Constitution,
○ the judicial power
▪ the power to decide actual cases and controversies involving the interpretation and application of
laws
○ is "vested in one Supreme Court
▪ in such lower courts as may be established by laws." (Art. VIII, Sec. 1 thereof.)

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 • The judiciary, composed of the courts, is one of the three (3) main divisions of power in our system of
government.
1. Regular courts. → The Philippine judicial system consists of a hierarchy of courts resembling a pyramid
with the Supreme Court at the apex.

→ Under present legislation, the other courts are:

a. one Court of Appeals,
b. Regional Trial Courts sitting in the different provinces and cities, and
c. Metropolitan Trial Courts in Metropolitan areas established by law;
• Municipal Trial Courts in cities not forming part of a metropolitan area, and in
municipalities;
• and Municipal Circuit Trial Courts in areas defined as municipal circuits.
○ Circuit courts exercise jurisdiction over two (2) or more cities and/or
municipalities.

→ The Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and the Regional Trial Courts
○ are considered courts of general or superior jurisdiction.

2. Special courts → a special anti-graft court, the Sandiganbayan. (Art. XI, Sec. 4 thereof.)

→ It forms part of the judicial hierarchy together with the Court of Tax Appeals
• a special tax court created by law, on the same level as the Court of Appeals.

3. Quasi-judicial → Administrative bodies under the executive branch performing quasi-judicial functions,
agencies. like the:
• National Labor Relations Commission, (obrero)
• the Securities and Exchange Commission,
• Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board,
• Insurance Commission, etc.,
• and the independent Constitutional Commissions (Civil Service Commission,
Commission on Elections and Commission on Audit) do not form part of the
integrated judicial system.

→ Their functions are described as "quasi-judicial" because they also involve the
settlement or adjudication of controversies or disputes.

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CLASSIFICATIONS OF LAW
1. As to its a. Substantive law
purpose • or that portion of the body of law creating, defining, and regulating rights and duties
• may either be public or private in character.
○ An example of substantive private law is the law on obligations and contracts

b. Adjective law
• or that portion of the body of law prescribing the manner or procedure by which rights may
be enforced or their violations redressed.
• called remedial law or procedural law.
○ The provision of law which says that actions for the recovery of real property shall be
filed with the Regional Trial Court of the region where the property or any part thereof
lies, is an example of private adjective law.

• Rights and duties are useless unless they can be enforced.

○ It is not enough, therefore, that the state regulates the rights and duties of all who are
subject to the law; it must also provide legal remedies by which substantive law may be
administered. Hence, the need for adjective law.

• governed by the Rules of Court

• promulgated by the Supreme Court and by special laws.

2. As to its a. Public law

subject • or the body of legal rules which regulates the rights and duties arising from the relationship of
matter: the state to the people.

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 matter: the state to the people.

• Examples
○ criminal law,
▪ the law which defines crimes and provides for their punishment.
▪ when a person commits a crime, he violates not only the right of the individual
victim
▪ but primarily that of the state because the crime disturbs the peace and order of
the state.
○ international law
▪ or that law which governs the relations among nations or states;
○ constitutional law
▪ or that which governs the relations between the state and its citizens;
▪ it establishes the fundamental powers of the government;
○ administrative law
▪ or that which governs the methods by which the functions of administrative
authorities are to be performed;
○ criminal procedure
▪ or that branch of private law which governs the methods of trial and punishment in
criminal cases;

b. Private law
• or the body of rules which regulates the relations of individuals with one another for purely
private ends.

• Included:
○ The law on obligations and contracts
▪ it deals with the rights and obligations of the contracting parties only.
▪ The state, however, is also involved in private law; it enforces private law but simply
as an arbiter and not as a party. (see M.J. Gamboa, op. cit., p. 98.)
○ civil law,
○ commercial or mercantile law, and
○ civil procedure.
▪ is that branch of private law which provides for the means by which private rights
may be enforced.

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Law on obligations and contracts defined.

• is the body of rules which deals with the nature and sources of obligations and the rights and duties arising from
agreements and the particular contracts. (Ibid.; see Art. 1307.)

Civil Code of the Philippines.

• The law on obligations and contracts is found in Republic Act No. 386,

• otherwise known as the Civil Code of the Philippines.

• When we speak of civil law, we refer to the law found primarily in our Civil Code.
○ The Civil Code of the Philippines is based mainly on the Civil Code of Spain which took effect in the
Philippines on December 7, 1889. (Mijares vs. Neri, 3 Phil. 196.) It was approved as Republic Act No. 386 on
June 18, 1949 and took effect on August 30, 1950. (Lara vs. Del Rosario, 94 Phil. 778.)

• It is divided into four (4) books.

Civil Code provisions on obligations and contracts.

• Book IV of the Civil Code deals with obligations and contracts.

• Title I, Articles 1156-1304,

○ The general provisions on obligations are contained

• Title II, Articles 1305-1422.

○ while those on contracts,
○ The general rules of law governing contracts are also applicable to the particular kinds of contracts (like
sale, agency, partnership, barter, etc.) in addition to the special provisions of law governing each type of
contract.

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 contract.

• Title III, Articles 1423-1430.

○ Book IV also contains new provisions dealing with natural obligations

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Conclusive presumption of knowledge of law.

• Ignorance of law excuses no one from compliance therewith. (Art. 3, Civil Code.)
○ Everyone, therefore, is conclusively presumed to know the law.
○ This presumption is far from reality but it has been established because of the obligatory force of law.

• The following reasons have been advanced for this presumption:

1) If laws will not be binding until they are actually known, then social life will be impossible, because
most laws cannot be enforced due to their being unknown to many;

2) It is almost impossible to prove the contrary when a person claims ignorance of the law;

3) It is absurd to absolve those who do not know the law and increase the obligations of those who know
it; and

4) In our conscience, we carry norms of right and wrong and a sense of duty, so that our reason
indicates many times what we have to do and in more complicated juridical relations, there are
lawyers who should be consulted (A. Tolentino, op. cit., pp. 18-19.); and

5) "Evasion of the law would be facilitated and the administration of justice would be defeated if
persons could successfully plead ignorance of the law to escape the legal consequences of their
acts, or to excuse non-performance of their legal duties. The rule, therefore, is dictated not only by
expediency but also by necessity." (Ibid., p.7; Zulueta vs. Zulueta, 1 Phil. 254.)
□ Thus, ignorance of the provisions of the law imposing a penalty for illegal possession of firearms, or
punishing the possession of prohibited drugs, does not constitute a valid excuse for their violation.

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