Doctrine of Constitutional Supremacy

The Constitution is the supreme and fundamental law of the nation, it is deemed written in all statutes and
contracts. This doctrine provides that if a law or contract violates the Constitution, that law or contract is
null and void and without force and effect.

Presidential Government- There is separation of the executive and legislative powers

Parliamentary Government- The exercise of executive powers is vested to a Prime Minister who is
chose by the people. There is combination of Legislative and Executive powers.

Federal Government- The powers of the government is divided in to national affairs and local
affairs. Each organ is Supreme within their own sphere. The autonomous local units are merged into a
single state and the national government exercising a limited degree of power over the domestic affairs.

Act of State
National courts should refrain from prosecuting the validity of official acts conveyed by a foreign state
within its own territory, except if it is a violation of international norms.

Archipelagic Doctrine
This doctrine provides that, the outermost points of the archipelago are connected with the straight
baselines and consider all the waters enclosed therein as internal waters. The whole archipelago is
regarded as one combined unit instead of being divided into many islands.

The waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth
and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines(1987 Constitution, Art. I).

Right of innocent passage

It allows a vessel to pass through the archipelagic and territorial waters of another state, subject to certain
restrictions.

Theory of Auto-Limitation

Any State may by its consent, express or implied, submit to a restriction of its sovereign rights. There may
be a curtailment of its absolute power.

NOTE: While sovereignty has traditionally been deemed absolute and all-encompassing on the domestic
level, it is however subject to restrictions and limitations voluntarily agreed to by the Philippines, expressly
or impliedly, as a member of the family of nations. By the doctrine of incorporation, the country is bound
by generally accepted principles of international law, which are considered to be automatically part of our
own laws.

The sovereignty of a state therefore cannot in fact and in reality be considered absolute. Certain
restrictions enter into the picture: (1) limitations imposed by the very nature of membership in the family of
nations and (2) limitations imposed by treaty stipulations (Tañada v. Angara, G.R. No. 118295, May 2,
1997).

IMPERIUM- it provides for the State’s authority to govern as embraced in the concept of sovereignty.
includes passing laws governing a territory, maintaining peace and order over it, and defeating it against
foreign invasion.

DOMINIUM-Capacity of the state to own or acquire property.

Doctrine of Parens Patriae

A doctrine that grants the inherent power and authority of the state to protect persons who are legally
unable to act on their own behalf.

Principle of Jus Postliminium

The authority of the legitimate government is ousted and the territoey of =of one belligerent State is
occupied by the enemy during war. When the belligerent occupation ceases to be effective, the authority
of the legitimate government is automatically restored, together with all its laws.

Jura Regalia provides that all lands not appearing to be clearly of private dominion presumably belong
to the State.

Concept of Native Title

The rights of ICCs/IPs to their ancestral domains shall be recognized and respected. It refers to the
Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples (ICCs/IPs) rights to lands and domains held under
a claim of private ownership as far back as memory reaches. These lands are deemed never to have
been public lands.

Royal Prerogative of Dishonesty

-it grants the state the prerogative to defeat any legitimate claim against it by simply invoking its non-
suability.

Decentralization of Power
Involves abdication, by the national government, of political power in favor of LGUs declared to be
autonomous. The autonomous government becomes accountable not to the central authorities but to its
constituency.

Decentralization of Administration

The central government merely delegates administrative powers to political subdivisions in order to
broaden the base of the government power, and making LGUs more responsive and accountable.

Principle of Separation of Powers

The principle of separation of powers ordains that each of the three great branches of government has
exclusive cognizance of and supreme in matters falling within its own constitutionally allocated sphere.

Legislation belongs to the Congress, implementation to the executive, and settlement of legal
controversies and adjudication of rights to the judiciary. Each is therefore prevented from invading the
domain of the others.
Principle of Blending of Powers

Refers to an instance when powers are not confined exclusively within one department but are shared by
several departments.

Examples of the Blending of Powers

1. Power of appointment which can be exercised by each department and be rightfully exercised by
each department over its own administrative personnel;
2. General Appropriations Law – President prepares the budget which serves as the basis of the bill
adopted by Congress;
3. Amnesty granted by the President requires the concurrence of the majority of all the members of
the Congress; and

4. d. Power of the COMELEC to deputize law- enforcement agencies and instrumentalities of the
government for the purpose of ensuring free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible elections in
accordance with the power granted to it by the Constitution to enforce and administer all laws and
regulations relative the conduct of elections [Art. IX-C, Sec. 2(1)] (Concurring and Dissenting
Opinion of Justice Puno, Macalintal v. COMELEC, G.R. No. 157013, July 10, 2003).

Principle of Checks and Balances

Allows one department to resist encroachments upon its prerogatives or to rectify mistakes or excesses
committed by the other departments.

Doctrine of Necessary Implication

All powers necessary for the effective exercise of the express powers are deemed impliedly granted(

Exercise of the power may be justified in the absence of an express conferment because the grant of
express power carried with it all other powers that may be reasonably inferred from it.

Political questions

Questions which involve the policy or the wisdom of the law or act, or the morality or efficacy of the same.
Generally it cannot be inquired by the courts. Further, these are questions which under the Constitution:

1. are decided by the people in their sovereign capacity; and

2. where full discretionary authority has been delegated by the Constitution either to the executive or
legislative department.

Justiciable Questions

Imply 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.

Power of Subordinate Legislation

Power of administrative agency to promulgate rules and regulations on matters within their own
specialization
Doctrine of Incorporation

Rules of International Law form part of the law of the land and no legislative action is required to make
them applicable in a country. Thus, the Philippines is bound by generally accepted principles of
international law, which are considered to be automatically part of our own laws.

Doctrine of Transformation

Generally accepted rules of international law are not per se binding upon the State but must first be
embodied egislation enacted by the lawmaking body and so transformed into municipal law.

Welfare state concept

The welfare state is a form of government in which the state protects and promotes the economic and
social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitable distribution
of wealth, and public responsibility for citizens unable to avail themselves of the minimal
provisions for a good 

Principle of Non-Delegability of Legislative Power

Non-Delegation of Powers The Congress cannot further delegate the power delegated to it by the
people. This is in keeping with the principle of non-delegation of powers which is applicable to all the
three branches of the government.

Enrolled Bill Theory

Under the doctrine, once a bill passes a legislative body and is signed into law, the courts assume that all
rules of procedure in the enactment process were properly followed. The enrolled bill rule is a  principle
of judicial interpretation of rules of procedure in legislative bodies. 

Pocket Veto
When the President fails to act on a bill; and when the reason he does not return the bill to the Congress
is that Congress is not in session.

Pocket veto is NOT applicable in the Philippines

because inaction by the President for 30 days never produces a veto even if Congress is in recess. The
President must still act to veto the bill and communicate his veto to Congress without need of returning
the vetoed bill with his veto message.

Partial Veto
is a special form of veto power that authorizes a chief executive to reject particular provisions of a bill
enacted by a legislature without vetoing the entire bill. Many countries have different standards for
invoking the line-item veto, if it exists at all.

Legislative veto – Congress retains a “right” or “power” to approve or disapprove any regulation enacted
by administrative body before it takes effect. It is in the form of an inward-turning delegation designed to
attach a congressional leash to an agency to which Congress has by law initially delegated broad powers
(ABAKADA Guro Party-list v. Purisima, G.R. No. 166715, Aug. 14, 2008).
Legislative veto violates the doctrine of separation of powers, thus, unconstitutional

In exercising discretion to approve or disapprove the IRR based on a determination of whether or not it
conformed to the law, Congress arrogated judicial power unto itself, a power exclusively vested in the
Supreme Court by the Constitution. Thus, violating the doctrine of separation of powers.

From the moment the law becomes effective, any provision of law that empowers Congress or any of its
members to play any role in the implementation or enforcement of the law violates the principle of
separation of powers and is thus unconstitutional (ABAKADA Guro Party-list v. Purisima, Ibid.).

Theory of legal impossibility

Legal Impossibility is a defense to a charge of attempt. Legal Impossibility arises when a defendant
completes all of his intended acts, but the sum of his acts does not constitute a crime. In other words, the
defendant seeks to do something that is not a crime.

Forbidden Office

Cannot be appointed to any office which have been created, or the emoluments thereof increased during
the term for which he was elected

NOTE:After such term, and even if he is re- elected, the disqualification no longer applies and he may
therefore be appointed to the office

*Senator or any member of HOR