Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Espinas) |1
Alcazar, JMM.
Chapter 1
Conflicts of Laws part of municipal law of a state which directs its courts and administrative
agencies, when confronted with a legal problem involving a foreign element, whether or not they should
apply a foreign law/s.
to regional agencies
Forcible Remedies severance
of diplomatic relations,
retorsions, reprisals, embargo,
boycott, non-intercourse, pacific
blockades, collective measures
under UN Charter, war
Section 2, Art. XII, 1987 Constitution. All lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum,
and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and
fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural lands, all
other natural resources shall not be alienated. The exploration, development, and utilization of natural
resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State. The State may directly undertake
such activities, or it may enter into co-production, joint venture, or production-sharing agreements with
Filipino citizens, or corporations or associations at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by
such citizens. Such agreements may be for a period not exceeding twenty-five years, renewable for not
more than twenty-five years, and under such terms and conditions as may be provided by law. In cases
of water rights for irrigation, water supply fisheries, or industrial uses other than the development of
water power, beneficial use may be the measure and limit of the grant. –xxx—
Section 3, Art. XII, 1987 Constitution. Lands of the public domain are classified into agricultural, forest
or timber, mineral lands and national parks. Agricultural lands of the public domain may be further
classified by law according to the uses to which they may be devoted. Alienable lands of the public
domain shall be limited to agricultural lands. Private corporations or associations may not hold such
alienable lands of the public domain except by lease, for a period not exceeding twenty-five years,
renewable for not more than twenty-five years, and not to exceed one thousand hectares in area.
Citizens of the Philippines may lease not more than five hundred hectares, or acquire not more than
twelve hectares thereof, by purchase, homestead, or grant. Taking into account the requirements of
conservation, ecology, and development, and subject to the requirements of agrarian reform, the
Congress shall determine, by law, the size of lands of the public domain which may be acquired,
developed, held, or leased and the conditions therefor.
b) Codifications
Article 15, CC. 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. (9a)
Article 16. Real property as well as personal property is subject to the law of the country where it is
stipulated.
However, intestate and testamentary successions, both with respect to the order of succession and to
the amount of successional rights and to the intrinsic validity of testamentary provisions, shall be
regulated by the national law 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. (10a)
Article 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 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 or conventions agreed upon in a foreign country. (11a)
Article 66. When either or both of the contracting parties are citizens or subjects of a foreign country, it
shall be necessary, before a marriage license can be obtained, to provide themselves with a certificate of
legal capacity to contract marriage, to be issued by their respective diplomatic or consular officials.
Article 71. All marriages performed outside the Philippines in accordance with the laws in force in the
country where they were performed, and valid there as such, shall also be valid in this country, except
bigamous, polygamous, or incestuous marriages as determined by Philippine law.
Article 99. No person shall be entitled to a legal separation who has not resided in the Philippines for
one year prior to the filing of the petition, unless the cause for the legal separation has taken place
within the territory of this Republic. (Sec. 2a, Act No. 2710).
Article 124. If the marriage is between a citizen of the Philippines and a foreigner, whether celebrated in
the Philippines or abroad, the following rules shall prevail:
(1) If the husband is a citizen of the Philippines while the wife is a foreigner, the provisions of
this Code shall govern their relations;
(2) If the husband is a foreigner and the wife is a citizen of the Philippines, the laws of the
husband's country shall be followed, without prejudice to the provisions of this Code with
regard to immovable property. (1325a)
Article 815. When a Filipino is in a foreign country, he is authorized to make a will in any of the forms
established by the law of the country in which he may be. Such will may be probated in the Philippines.
Article 816. The will of an alien who is abroad produces effect in the Philippines if made with the
formalities prescribed by the law of the place in which he resides, or according to the formalities
observed in his country, or in conformity with those which this Code prescribes. (n)
Article 817. A will made in the Philippines by a citizen or subject of another country, which is executed in
accordance with the law of the country of which he is a citizen or subject, and which might be proved
and allowed by the law of his own country, shall have the same effect as if executed according to the
laws of the Philippines. (n)
Article 818. Two or more persons cannot make a will jointly, or in the same instrument, either for their
reciprocal benefit or for the benefit of a third person. (669)
Article 819. Wills, prohibited by the preceding article, executed by Filipinos in a foreign country shall not
be valid in the Philippines, even though authorized by the laws of the country where they may have
been executed. (733a)
c) Special laws
d) Treaties and conventions – see Paras, pages 17-18
e) Judicial decisions
Article 8, CC. Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form a part of
the legal system of the Philippines.
f) International customs
Article 14, CC. Penal laws and those of public security and safety 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.
Lex situs - law of the place where the property is situated; governs transactions concerning real
property
Lex Loci Celebrationis - law of the place of celebration or execution; governs transactions as to
formalities or solemnities
Lex nationalii - national law or Lex domicilii - domiciliary law; governs successional rights to
estate
Principle of territoriality - place or territory where a crime has been committed has jurisdiction
to try the offenses that has been committed.
Principle of generality - criminal laws of a country bind both the citizens and the aliens who are
in the said country or territory.
Chapter 2
3 kinds of jurisdiction
1) Over the subject matter – authority of the court to hear and decide cases of general class to
which the proceedings in question belong
2) Over the person – power of the court to render a judgment that will be binding on the parties
involved
3) Over the res – jurisdiction over the particular subject matter in controversy
Chapter 3
Requisites before foreign judgments may be recognized and enforced in the Philippines
1) There must be proof of the foreign judgment
2) Judgment must be on a civil or commercial matter
3) There must be no lack of jurisdiction, no want of notice, no collusion, no fraud, no clear mistake
of law or fact
4) The judgment must not contravene a sound and established public policy of the forum
5) Judgment must be res judicata in the state that rendered it
Conflicts rule provisions found in a country’s own law which govern factual situations possessed of a
foreign element.
Article 1039, CC. Capacity to succeed is governed by the law of the nation of the decedent.
Article 1753. The law of the country to which the goods are to be transported shall govern the liability of
the common carrier for their loss, destruction or deterioration.
Characterization - the process of determining under what category a certain set of facts or rules fall
F. Pleading and proving of the proper foreign law – if a duly proven foreign law has already been
given a judicial interpretation in the country of origin, it must generally be given an identical
interpretation in the Phils., unless we have a similar or identical internal law, and said internal
law has received a diametrically opposite construction before our own tribunals.
G. Application of the proper law to the problem
Theories on Characterization
Ω Lex fori - forum merely considers its own concepts, its own characterization
Ω Lex causae – we are supposed to follow the characterization of the foreign state which is the
principal point of contact.
Ω Universal Analytical theory (comparative approach theory) – characterization comes only after
a general comparative analytical study of the jurisprudence of all the states involved.
Ω Dual theory of Lex Fori and Lex Causae –
Ω Autonomous theory – consider the characterization of the country referred to in the conflicts
rule of the lex causae
Ω Totality theory - get the law intended by the parties to apply, and proceed to apply the
characterization given by that intended law.
Status - the place of an individual in society and consists of personal qualities and relationships, more or
less permanent, with which the state and the community are concerned.
Capacity - mere part of status, and may be definbed as the sum total of his rights and obligations
Capacity to act (active capacity) - power to do acts with legal effects
Juridical capacity (passive capacity) – fitness to be the subject of legal relations (Art. 37, CC)
Characteristics of Status
a) Conferred principally by the state, and not by the individual
b) A matter of public or social interest
c) Concept of social order, and cannot be easily terminated at the mere will or desire of the parties
concerned
d) Generally supposed to have a universal character
Naturalization:
A judicial process, where formalities of the law have to be complied with including a judicial hearing and
approval of the petition.
Attributes of Naturalization:
A. Citizenship is not a right, it is a privilege.
B. Requisites for naturalization are laid down by Congress, courts cannot change it.
C. Only foreigners may be naturalized
D. It may be revoked, by the cancellation of the certificate of naturalization
E. It demands allegiance to our Constitution, laws, and government.
F. It is a proceeding in rem.
Steps in Naturalization:
a) Declaration of intention to become a Filipino must first be filed
b) Filing of petition for naturalization – at the RTC of the province in which the petitioner has
resided for at least 1yr immediately preceding the filing of petition
c) After publication in Official Gazette, petition will be heard.
d) If petition is approved, there will be a rehearing 2 years after the promulgation of the judgment
awarding naturalization
e) Taking of oath of allegiance to support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the
Philippines
service to said foreign country: And provided, finally, That any Filipino citizen who is
rendering service to, or is commissioned in, the armed forces of a foreign country under
any of the circumstances mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b), shall not be permitted to
participate nor vote in any election of the Republic of the Philippines during the period
of his service to, or commission in, the armed forces of said foreign country. Upon his
discharge from the service of the said foreign country, he shall be automatically entitled
to the full enjoyment of his civil and political rights as a Filipino citizen;
(5) By cancellation of the of the certificates of naturalization;
(6) By having been declared by competent authority, a deserter of the Philippine armed
forces in time of war, unless subsequently, a plenary pardon or amnesty has been granted; and
(7) In the case of a woman, upon her marriage to a foreigner if, by virtue of the laws in force in
her husband's country, she acquires his nationality.
The provisions of this section notwithstanding, the acquisition of citizenship by a natural born Filipino
citizen from one of the Iberian and any friendly democratic Ibero-American countries or from the
United Kingdom shall not produce loss or forfeiture of his Philippine citizenship if the law of that
country grants the same privilege to its citizens and such had been agreed upon by treaty between the
Philippines and the foreign country from which citizenship is acquired.
3 kinds of domicile:
Domicile of origin - assigned to a person by the law at the moment of birth
Constructive Domicile (by operation of law) - assigned to him by the law after birth on account
of legal disability
Domicile of choice – pertains to his home, to which, whenever he is absent, he intends to
return; voluntary chosen by a sui juris.
Renvoi means referring back. Problem arises when there is doubt as to whether a reference to a foreign
law is:
- A reference to the internal law of the said foreign law
- A reference to the whole of the foreign law, including its conflicts rule
Proposed solutions:
i. Reject the renvoi
ii. Accept the renvoi
iii. Follow the desistment theory
iv. Follow the foreign court theory
Transmission process of applying the law of a foreign state thru the law of a second foreign state