Notes on:
Articles 1 -20
Effect and Application of Laws
Art 1. Republic Act Number 386
This act shall be known as the Civil Code of the Philippines
Republic Act No. 386 prepared by the Roxas Code Commission, created
via EO No. 48 March 20, 1947
An Act to Ordain and Institute the Civil Code of the Philippines
Art 2. Effectivity of the Civil Code
Laws shall take effect after 15 days following the date of their
publication in the Official Gazette, unless otherwise provided. This Code shall
take effect one year after publication.
1950 Civil Code took effect on August 30, 1950
Effectivity of Laws. When a statute does not explicitly provide for
its effectivity, it shall have effect only after the expiration of the 15-day
period following the completion of its publication either in the Official
Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.
Art 3.
Ignorance of the law excuses no one compliance therewith.
Ignorantia legis non excusat
It is a presumption that every person knows the law. Article 3
applies only to mandatory or prohibitory laws.
Art 4. Non-retroactivity of laws
Laws shall have no retroactive effect, unless the contrary is
provided.
That law looks into the future and has no
retroactive effect unless the legislature may have given effect to some legal
provisions.
Retroactive Application
- When the law expressly provides for retroactivity.
- When the law is curative or remedial
- When the law is procedural
- When the law is penal in character and favorable to the accused.
Art 5. Mandatory and Prohibitory Laws
Acts executed against the provisions of mandatory or prohibitory
laws shall be void, except when the law itself authorizes their validity.
Mandatory law. Law is one the omission which renders the proceeding
or acts to which it relates generally illegal or void
Prohibitory law. Contain positive prohibitions and are couched in
negative terms
Art 6. Waiver
Rights may be waived, unless the waiver is contrary to law, public
policy, morals or good customs, or prejudicial to the third person with right
recognized by the law.
Waiver - intentional relinquishment of a known right.
It is important that a right, in order that it may be validly
waived, must be in existence at the time of the waiver
When to
waive your rights?
|
When
you know there is a right exists
|
You
require knowledge of facts basic to the exercised of the right waived
|
|
You
must be aware of its consequences
|
Prohibition against waiver. If it is contrary to law, public order,
policy, morals, good customs, prejudicial to the 3rd person with a right
recognized by the law.
Rights, protections, and advantages conferred by statutes are
generally waived.
Art 7. Repealed Laws
Law are repealed only by subsequent ones, and their violation or
non-observance shall not be excused by disuse, or custom, or practice to the
contrary.
When the court declare a law to be inconsistent with the
Constitution, the former shall be void the latter shall govern.
Administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations shall be
valid only when they are not contrary to the laws or the Constitution.
Repeal of law. Legislative act of abrogating through a subsequent
law the effects of a previous statute or portions thereof.
Express repeal. Repeal by which literally declared by a new law
Specific terms. Where particular laws and provisions are named and
identified and declared to be repealed.
General terms. Where a provision in new law declares all laws and
parts of laws inconsistent to be repealed.
Implied repeal. New law contains provisions contrary to the
Constitution with those of a former without expressly repealing them.
Unconstitutional Statutes.
The Constitution is the supreme organic and fundamental law of the land.
The constitutionality of unconstitutionality of the statute depends
upon factor other than those existing at the time of the enactment, unaffected
by acts or omissions of law enforcing agencies, specially those that take place
subsequently.
Partial Unconstitutionality of Statutes. Where the portion of the
statute is rendered unconstitutional and the remainder valid, the parts will be
separated, and the constitutional provisions upheld.
Rules and regulations etc. Rules and regulations when promulgated in
pursuance of the procedure or authority conferred upon the administrative
agency by law, partake of the nature of a sanction provided in the law.
A rule is binding on the courts so long as the procedure fixed for
it promulgation is followed.
The regulations adopted under legislative authority by a particular
department must be in harmony with the provisions of the law.
Art 8 - Judicial Construction and Interpretation
Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the
Constitutions shall form a legal system of the Philippines.
Construction. Is the art or process of discovering and expounding the meaning and intentions of
the authors of the law, with respect to its application to a given case, where
that intention is rendered doubtful, among other reason of the fact that the
given case is not explicitly provided for in the law.
Effect of Judicial Decision. Legis
interpratio legis vim obtinet. The interpretation placed upon a written
law by a competent court has the force of law.
Supreme
Court decisions
|
Authoritative
and precedent-setting
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CA
& Inferior courts
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Merely
persuasive
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Art 9. Duty of judges
No judge or court shall decline to render judgment by reason of the
silence, obscurity or insufficiency of the laws.
Judges are tasked with the dispensation of justice in accordance
with the constitutional precept that no person shall be deprived of life,
liberty or property without due process of law.
Judicial Legislation. The judiciary task is to resolve controversies
and interpreting statutes. The judiciary cannot legislate.
Art 10. Doubtful statutes
In case of doubt in the interpretation and application of laws, it
is presumed that the lawmaking body intended right and justice to prevail.
Where the law is clear, it must be applied according to its
unambiguous provisions.
If there is ambiguity in the law, interpretation of the law requires
fidelity to the legislative purpose.
Art 11. Customs
Customs which are contrary to law, public order or public policy
shall not be countenanced
Art 12
A custom must be proved as a fact, according to the rules of
evidence.
Custom - rule of conduct formed by repetition of acts, uniformly
observed as a social rule, legally binding and obligatory.
Local custom as a source of right cannot be considered by a court of
justice unless such custom is properly established by competent evidence like
any other fact.
Art 13. Years, months, days, nights
When the law speaks of years, months, days or nights, it shall be
understood that years are of 365 days each; months of 30 days; days, of 24
hours; and nights from sunset to sunrise.
If months are designated by their name, they shall be computed by
the number of days which they respectively have.
In computing a period, the first day shall be excluded and the last
day included.
Art 14. Obligatory force of penal laws
Penal laws and those of public safety and security shall be
obligatory upon all who live or sojourn in the Philippine territory, subject to
the principles of public international law and to treaty stipulations
Art 15. Nationality Rule
Laws relating to family rights and duties, or to the status,
condition and legal capacity of persons are binding upon citizens of the
Philippines, even though living abroad.
Regardless of where a citizen of the Philippines
might be, he or she will be governed by Philippine with respect to his or
family rights and duties, or to his or her status, condition, and legal
capacity.
Art 16 Law Governing Real Properties
Real property as well as personal property is subject to the law of
the country where it is situated.
However, intestate and testamentary succession and to the amount of
successional rights and to the intrinsic validity of testamentary provisions,
shall be regulated by the national of the person whose succession is under
consideration, whatever may be the nature of the property and regardless of the country
wherein said property may be found.
Testamentary succession. When the descendant died with a valid will
which must be duly allowed by the court. It is essential that there be
qualified heirs of the will
Intestate succession. Either
the descendant died without a will, or he died with a void or an ineffective
will. It is not correct to say that there is intestacy just because there is no
will. In intestacy, a valid could be in
existence although it might have lost its validity or there are no qualified
heirs or all designated heirs have refuse the inheritance.
Order of succession. Order in
which individuals are expected to succeed one another in some official
position.
Amount of successional rights.
Amount of property that each heir is legally entitled to inherit from the
estate available for distribution.
Capacity to succeed
Intrinsic validity of the provisions
of the will. e.g., whether a disinheritance has properly been made or
not, whether a testamentary disposition can be given effect or not.
Lex rei sitae - Law where the property is situated.
Renvoi doctrine. Commonly used in conflict of laws. It refers to the
application of rules of one state by the court or tribunal of another state, in
order to solve a conflict of laws problem.
Art 17
The forms and solemnities of contracts, wills, and other public
instruments shall be governed by the laws of the country in which they are
executed.
When the acts referred to are executed before the diplomatic or
consular officials of the Republic of the Philippines in a foreign country, the
solemnities established by the Philippine laws shall be observed in their
execution.
Prohibitive laws concerning persons, their acts or property, and
those which have for their object public order, public policy and good customs
shall not be rendered ineffective by laws or judgments promulgated, or by
determinations of conventions agreed upon in a foreign country.
Extrinsic validity. Law provides that the forms and solemnities of
public instruments, wills, and contracts shall be governed by the laws of the
country where they are executed.
Lex loci celebrationis. The place where the law is contracted.
Formalities of acquisition, encumbering and alienation of property
shall however, be governed not by the
lex loci celebrationis but by the lex rei sitae.
Acts before diplomatic and consular officials. They are
representatives of the state, therefore any act or contract made in a foreign
country must conform with the solemnities under Philippine law. The host country, by rules of international
law, waives its jurisdiction over the premises of the diplomatic office of
another country located in the said country.
Prohibitive laws. Under our law, prohibitive laws concerning persons
shall not be rendered ineffective by laws or judgment promulgated, or by
determinations or conventions agreed upon in a foreign country.
Art 18 Suppletory Nature.
In matters which are governed by the Code of Commerce and special
laws, their deficiency shall be supplied by the provisions of this Code.
Any deficiency in the Code of Commerce shall be supplied by the
provisions of the Civil Code.
- Persons and Family Relations, 2009, Sta. Maria, Melencio S.
