1.

Define social justice re calalang v Williams

SOCIAL JUSTICE. — Social justice is "neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy,"
but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the State so that
justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated.

Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the Government of
measures calculated to insure economic stability of all the competent elements of society, through the
maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the
community, constitutionally, through the adoption of measures legally justifiable, or extra-
constitutionally, through the exercise of powers underlying the existence of all governments on the
time-honored principle of salus populi est suprema lex.

Social justice, therefore, must be founded on the recognition of the necessity of interdependence
among divers and diverse units of a society and of the protection that should be equally and evenly
extended to all groups as a combined force in our social and economic life, consistent with the
fundamental and paramount objective of the state of promoting the health, comfort, and quiet of all
persons, and of bringing about "the greatest good to the greatest number."
2. Define and discuss the Archipelagic doctrine.

Magallona vs Ermita.

Facts:
In March 2009, R.A. 9522 was enacted by the Congress to comply with the terms of the United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which the Philippines ratified on February 27, 1984.

Professor Merlin Magallona et al questioned the validity of RA 9522 as they contend, among others, that the law decreased
the national territory of the Philippines. Some of their particular arguments are as follows:

1. RA 9522 reduces Philippine maritime territory, and logically, the reach of the Philippine state’s sovereign power, in
violation of Article 1 of the 1987 Constitution, embodying the terms of the Treaty of Paris and ancillary treaties.
2. RA 9522 opens the country’s waters landward of the baselines to maritime passage by all vessels and aircrafts,
undermining Philippine sovereignty and national security, contravening the country’s nuclear-free policy, and
damaging marine resources, in violation of relevant constitutional provisions.
3. RA 9522’s treatmentof the KIG as “regime of islands” not only results in the loss of a large maritime area but also
prejudices the livelihood of subsistence fishermen.

Hence, petitioners files action for the writs of certiorari and prohibition assails the constitutionality of Republic Act No.
95221 (RA 9522) adjusting the country’s archipelagic baselines and classifying the baseline regime of nearby territories.

Issues:
Whether or not RA 9522, the amendatory Philippine Baseline Law is unconstitutional.

Discussions:
The provision of Art I 198 Constitution clearly affirms the archipelagic doctrine, which we connect the outermost points of
our archipelago with straight baselines and consider all the waters enclosed thereby as internal waters. RA 9522, as a
Statutory Tool to Demarcate the Country’s Maritime Zones and Continental Shelf Under UNCLOS III, gave nothing less
than an explicit definition in congruent with the archipelagic doctrine.

3. Differentiate justiciable from political questions.

Chapter 6 Page 139 to 144

A purely justiciable question implies a given right, legally demandable and enforceable, an act or omission violative
of such right, and a remedy granted and sanctioned by law, for said breach of right.

- According to Justice Makasar in Casibang vs Aquino

But where the matter fails under the discretion of another department or especially the people themselves, the
decision reached is in the category of a political question and consequently may not be the subject of judicial review.

- Legal basis: Isagani Cruz.

The Court ruling on Tanada vs Cuenco

The term ‘political question’ connotes what it means in ordinary parlance, namely, a question of policy. It refers to
‘those questions which, under the Constitution, are to be decided by the people in their sovereign capacity; or in
regard to which full discretionary authority has been delegated to the legislative or executive branch of the
government. It is concerned with issues dependent upon the wisdom, not legality of a particular measure.

In Sanidad vs Commission on Elections

Political questions are neatly associated with the wisdom, not the legality of a particular act. Where the vortex of the
controversy refers to the legality or validity of the contested act, that matter is definitely justiciable or non-political.

What is in the heels of the Court is not the wisdom of the act of the incumbent President in proposing amendments
to the Constitution, but his constitutional authority to perform such act or to assume the power of a constituent
assembly.

At any rate, the distinction between justiciable and political questions can perhaps best be illustrated by the
suspension or expulsion of a member of the Congress, which must be based upon the ground of “disorderly
behavior” and concurred in by at least two-thirds of all his colleagues.

The determination of what constitutes disorderly behavior is a political question and therefore not cognizable by the
courts;

but the disciplinary measure may nonetheless be disauthorized if it was supported by less than the required vote.

The latter issue dealing as it does with a procedural rule the interpretation of which calls only for a mathematical
computation, is a justiciable question.

4. Elements of State.

Chapter 3 Page 17 to 47

The state is a community of persons, more or less, numerous, permanently occupying a fixed territory, and
possessed of an independent government organized for political ends to which the great body of inhabitants render
habitual obedience.

Hackworth:

 The term nation, strictly speaking, as evidenced by its etymology, nasci to be born, indicates a relation of
birth or origin and implies a common race, usually characterized by community of language and customs.

The State must also be distinguished from the government. The government is only an element of the State. The
State is the principal, the government its agent.

The State itself is an abstraction; it is the government that externalizes the State and articulates its will.

The State is a legal concept while the nation is only a racial or ethnic concept.

The essential elements of a State are people, territory, government and sovereignty.

The so-called Montevideo Convention, cited by the Supreme Court in The Province of North Cotabato vs The
Government of the Republic of the Philippines Peace Panel on Ancestral Domain, specifies the accepted criteria for
the establishment of a State, namely, a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and a capacity to
enter into relations with other states.

1. People.
People refers simply to the inhabitants of the State.
While there is no legal requirement as to their number, it is generally agreed that they must be numerous enough to
be self-sufficing and to defend themselves and small enough to be easily administered and sustained.

The population of States range from over one billion of China to a few hundred thousand in the case of the so-called
mini-States like Qatar. Obviously, the people must come from both sexes to be able to perpetuate themselves.

Malcolm defines a nation as “a people bound together by common attractions and repulsions into a living organism
possessed of a common pulse, a common intelligence and inspiration, and destined apparently to have a common
history and a common fate.:

2. Territory

Territory is the fixed portion of the surface of the earth inhabited by the People of the State.

As a practical requirement only, it must be neither too big as to be difficult to administer and defend nor too small as
to be unable to provide for the needs of the population.

Legally, the territory can extend over a vast expanse, such as those of Russia and China, or cover only a small area,
such as that of Abu Dhabi.

The components of territory are the land mass, otherwise known as the terrestrial domain, the inland and external
waters, which make up the maritime and fluvial domain, and the air space above the land and waters, which is called
the aerial domain.

As pointed out by the Supreme Court in Magallona vs Ermita, the Philippines is a signatory to the Convention on the
Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, otherwise referred to as UNCLOS I, which codified, among others, “the
sovereign right of States parties over their ‘territorial sea’, the breadth of which, however, was left undetermined,”
and which served as basis for the passage in 1961 by Congress of RA 3046 demarcating the maritime baselines of the
Philippines as an archipelagic State.

Said law remained unchanged for nearly five decades, save for legislation passed in 1968 correcting typographical
errors and reserving the drawing of baselines around Sabah in North Borneo.

In the absence of municipal legislation, international law norms, now codified in UNCLOS III, operate to grant
innocent passage rights over the territorial sea or archipelagic waters, subject to the treaty’s limitations and
conditions for their exercise.

Significantly, the rights of innocent passage is a customary international law, thus automatically incorporated in the
corpus of Philippine law. No modern State can validly invoke its sovereignty to absolutely forbid inoocent passage
that is exercised in accordance with customary international law without risking retaliatory measures from the
international community.

The fact that for archipelagic States, their archipelagic waters are subject to both the right of innocent passage and
sea lanes passage does not place them in lesser footing vis-à-vis continental coastal States which are subject, in their
territorial sea, to the right of innocent passage and the right of transit passage through internatnional s traits. The
imposition of these passage rights through archipelagic waters under UNCLOS III was a concession by archipelagic
States, in exchange for their right to claim all the waters landward of their baselines, regardless of their depth or
distance from the coast, as archipelagic waters subject to their territorial sovereignty. More importantly, the
recognition of archipelagic States’ archipelago and the waters enclosed by their baselines as one cohesive entity
prevents the treatment of their islands as separate islands under UNCLOS III. Separate islands generate their own
maritime zones, placing the waters between islands separated by more than 24 nautical miles beyond the States’
territorial sovereignty, subjecting these ewaters to the rights of other States under UNCLOS III.

3. Government
Government is the agency or instrumentality through which the will of the State is formulated, expressed and
realized.

From the viewpoint of international law, no particular form of government is prescribed, provided only that the
government is able to represent the State in its dealings with other States. Our Constitution, however, requires our
government to be democratic and republican.

It has been said that “the State is an ideal person, invisible, intangible, immutable and existing only in contemplation
of law; the government is an agent and, within the sphere of its agency, it is a perfect representative, but outside of
that it is a lawless usurpation.

A. Functions
a. Constituent

Constituent functions constitute the very bods of society and are therefore compulsory.

Among the constituent functions are the following:

1. Keeping the order and providing for protection of persons and property from violence and robbery.
2. The fixing of legal relations between husband and wife and between parents and children.
3. The regulation of the holding, transmission and interchange of property, and the determination of its
liabilities for debt or for crime
4. The determination of contractual rights between individuals.
5. The definition and punishment of crimes.
6. The administration of justice in civil cases.
7. The administration of political duties, privileges and relations of citizens, and
8. The dealings of the State with foreign powers; the preservation of the State from external danger or
encroachment and the advancement of its international interests.

b. Ministrant

Ministrant functions are those undertaken to advance the general interests of society, such as public works, public
charity, and regulation of trade and industry. These functions are merely optional. Significantly, though, it is the
performance of ministrant functions that distinguishes the paternalistic government from the merely individualistic
government, which is concerned only with te basic function of maintaining peace and order.

To our Supreme Court, however, the distinction between constituent and ministrant functions is not relevant in our
jurisdiction. In PVTA vs CIR it reiterated the ruling ACCFA vs Federation of Labor Unions that such distinction has
been blurred because of the repudiation of the laissez faire policy in the Constitution.

B. Doctrine of Parens Patriae

One of the important tasks of the government is to act for the State as parens patriae, or guardian of the
rights of the people.
C. De Jure and De Facto Governments
D. Government of the Philippines

4. Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the supreme and uncontrollable power inherent in a State by which that State is governed.

There are two kinds of sovereignty, to wit, legal and political.

Legal sovereignty is the authority which has the power to issue final commands whereas political sovereignty is the
power behind the legal sovereign, or the sum of the influences that operate upon it. In our country, the Congress is
the legal sovereign, while the different sectors that mold public opinion that make up the public sovereign.
Sovereignty may also be internal or external. Internal sovereignty refers to the power of the State to control its
domestic affairs. External sovereignty, which is the power of the State to direct its relations with other States is also
known as independence.

Sovereignty is permanent, exclusive, comprehensive, absolute, indivisible, inalienable, and imprescritable.

There being no change of sovereignty during a belligerent occupation, the political laws of the occupied territory are
merely suspended, subject to revival under the jus postliminium upon the end of the occupation.

As for judicial decisions, the same are valid during the occupation and even beyond except those of a political
complexion, which are automatically annulled upon the restoration of the legitimate authority.

Where there is a change of sovereignty, the political laws of the former sovereign are not merely suspended but
abrogated. As they regulate the relations between the ruler and the ruled, these laws fall to the ground ipso facto
unless they are retained or re-enacteed by positive act of the new sovereign. Non-political laws, by contrast,
continue in operation, for the reason also that

Act of State.

An act done by the sovereign power of a country, or by its delegate, within the limits of the power vested in him. An
act of State cannot be questioned or made the subject of legal proceedings in a court of law.

With particular reference, to Political Law, as act of State is an act done by the political departments of the
government and not subject to judicial review. An illustration is the decision of the President, in the exercise of his
diplomatic power, to extend recognition to a newly-established foreign State or government.

5. Immunity from arrest.

Chapter 8 Page 228

6. privilege speech.

Chapter 8 Page 227, 228, 229

7 qualifications for members of congress.

Chapter 8 Page 186 to 222

8 Term from tenure

Chapter 10 Page 345