PRINCIPLE OF PRIMUS

INTER PARES
NOVEMBER 3, 2016 / JUDGE ELIZA B. YU, LLM, DCL

Primus Inter pares. First among equals. The Latin maxim

indicates that a person is the most senior of a group of
people sharing the same rank or office. The phrase has been
used to describe the status, condition or role of the prime
minister in most parliamentary nations, the high-ranking
prelate in several religious orders, and the chief justice in
many supreme courts around the world.
The inclination to focus on the inter pares without due
emphasis on the primus/prima has spawned contemporary
discourse that revives the original tug-of-war between
domination and parity, which impasse the conceived maxim
precisely intended to resolve.
In Aurelio Indencia Arrienda vs. Justice Puno, 499 Phil. 1, 14
(2005), Although the Chief Justice is primus inter pares, he
cannot legally decide a case on his own because of the
Courts nature as a collegial body. Neither can the Chief
Justice, by himself, overturn the decision of the Court,
whether of a division or the En Banc.