UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LAW

LAW 600 - FOUNDATION OF PUBLIC & PRIVATE LAWS

DR. AMADO F. MARALIT

Course Facilitator

GROUP 2 PRESENTATION
Atty. Ma. Evita N. Boholano
Judge Pacito M. Pineda, Jr.
Atty. Erickson A. Sandel
Prosec. Rowena M. Simbahan

1
 UNCIVIL
LAW AS A
TOOL OF
SPANISH
IMPERIALISM
2
 ANTECEDENTS OF PHILIPPINE CIVIL LAW
Civil
FE SCH
Fuero
El Code
Codigo of the

rule UD invasion OLA Reconquista

start of Juzgo Spain
Moors end of Civil Philippines
Visigothic given to colonized the
Cordoba Philippines Español took effect

ALI STI
456 AD 711 AD 1241 1492 1565 1889 1950

SM CIS
M
506 AD 1236 1348 1502 1804
1898 1988
Breviary Ordenamiento Leyes Napoleonic Spain E.O. 209, Series of 1987
ceded The Family
of Alaric de Alcala de Toro Code Philippines
promulgated Cordoba Siete enacted promulgated in to the Code of the
reconquered Partidas France U.S.A. Philippines
by Kingdom became the law enacted
of Castile of entire Spain

3
 FUERO JUZGO
Law of Persons & Family
• allowing Intermarriages between Goths
and Hispano-Romans
• Natural and Juridical Persons – “not all
human beings are persons and not all
persons are human beings”
• For a natural person to be considered
legally born, he must have lived for at
least 10 days and been baptized.
• 15 is the Age of Majority.

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 FUERO JUZGO
Law of Persons & Family
• Impediments to a Valid Marriage
Difference in status – freeman and a slave
Where woman is older than the man
Holy orders (bishop, priest, deacon, subdeacon)
Relationship to the 7th degree
Prior existing marriage
Crimes against chastity [abduction , rape] - legally
impossible for the felon to marry the victim
Temporal impediment [one year following the
dissolution of the woman’s previous marriage]

5
 FUERO JUZGO
Law of Persons & Family
• Anyone could marry who had reached puberty
• Prescribed wedding rites
“…The bride wore a veil, symbol of
her virginity. They were then blessed
by the priest, and were united by the
deacon with a white-and-red-cord,
the cord symbolizing the matrimonial
tie, and the color signifying purity
and fecundity.”

6
 FUERO JUZGO
Law of Persons & Family
• Conjugal Property
• Patria Potestas was acquired solely by reason of marriage
jus necis (right of putting to death) is available only
when either parent caught the daughter in the act of
carnal indulgence.
infanticide and abortion were punishable by death or by
gouging out of one’s eyes; slavery for the mother who
procured an abortion
• Substitute Parental Authority of the mother in the event of
the father’s death, but loses it if she remarries.
• A kind of Adventitious Property is recognized.

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Adventitious property
The property acquired by the son of a
family, under a lucrative title such as that
of inheritance, constitutes what was called
adventitious property of the son,
"adventitious gain, because it comes from
without, and not from the father’s
property. (Juson and Javier v. Ignacio,
G.R. No. 8791, December 6, 1915)

8
 FUERO JUZGO
Law of Property
• Modes of Acquiring Ownership
Prescription – either ordinary (30 years) or
extraordinary (50 years) – ordinary prescription
governs all cases except the division of lands
between Goths and Romans and property of
minors
Accession (by building, planting and sowing)
Succession
Occupation (by conquest, hunting and fishing)

9
 FUERO JUZGO
Law of Property

• Co-ownership was recognized and

regulated
• Servitudes were classified into personal
and real

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 FUERO JUZGO
Law of Descent
• Succession was either testamentary (attested or
holographic will) or intestate. Only freeman could
be witnesses.
• The minimum age for making wills was 14, and 10
in periculo mortis
• The reserved portion: 4/5 of the father’s property
and 3/4 of the mother’s, with a portion allowed as
mejora
• Disinheritance had specific grounds

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 FUERO JUZGO
Law of Descent

• An order of intestate succession was

established
• Beginnings of reserva

12
 FUERO JUZGO
Law of Obligations & Contracts
• Contractual Capacity was acquired at
the age of 14
• Vices of Consent - minority, insanity,
force or intimidation
• Regulated Contracts - sale, lease,
mutuum, commodatum, depositum,
mortgage, pledge

13
 SIETE PARTIDAS
General Provisions

• The Principle of Territoriality is

preserved
• Ignorance of the law is admitted as
an excuse for peasants, soldiers
and women

14
 SIETE PARTIDAS
Law of Persons and Family

• Minimum age for marriage is age of puberty

• 3 Modes of Legitimation - subsequent
marriage; will of the King; or the performance
of some service to the King
• Adoption (porfijamiento)
• Patria potestas is granted to the ascendant of
the highest degree.

15
 SIETE PARTIDAS
Law of Property
• Modes of Acquiring Ownership
Prescription
Accession
Succession
Occupation
Tradition (delivery)
• Rules on Possession and Servitudes are
reproduced

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 SIETE PARTIDAS
Law of Descent
• Institution of heirs and the legal impossibility of
dying partly testate and party intestate
• Fornecinos (illegitimate) are denied the capacity to
inherit from ascendants. They are sacrilegious,
adulterous and incestuous children.
• Legitime of descendants: ½ or 1/3 depending on the
number of children
• Mejoras are not provided for
• Legitimes are granted to ascendants

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 SIETE PARTIDAS
Law of Descent

• Substitutions are categorized into:

sustitucion vulgar - testator may designate
substitute for the heir he instituted in case
such heir dies before him, does not accept or
be unable to accept inheritance
sustitucion pupilar - parents/ascendants
may appoint substitute for their descendants
who are under legal age

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 SIETE PARTIDAS
Law of Descent

• sustitucion ejemplar – when the heir is judicially

incapacitated e.g. unsound mind
• sustitucion fideicomisaria - the testator
establishes a first heir (trustee), with the limitation
of keeping the inheritance assets and transmitting
them at his death to a second heir named for that
purpose (trustee).

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 SIETE PARTIDAS
Law of Descent

• Representation is made to operate ad

infinitum in the direct descending line, and
to the second degree in the collateral
• Succession in the collateral line is allowed
to the 4th degree; in default of relative
within these degrees, the surviving spouse;
and in his or her default, the King (escheat)

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 SIETE PARTIDAS
Law of Obligations and Contracts

• emphasized Form of Contract once

more
• contracts are either Real (mutuum,
commodatum, deposit, and pledge) or
Consensual (sale, lease, partnership,
and agency)

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 LEYES DE TORO
Law of Persons and Family
• Juridical capacity is possessed by the
naturalmente nacido with the following
requisites: a) the child must be be born alive; b)
it must survive at least 24 hours; and c) it must
be baptized. Absence of these requisites, the
child is abortivo
• Marriage was recognized as a cause of
emancipation from parental authority, and the
usufruct of any adventitious property passed to
the child

22
 LEYES DE TORO
Law of Persons and Family
• Ley de osculo (law of kiss) – if the marriage did not
materialize, the woman had the right to retain ½ of
whatever the man had given her, if he had already
kissed her.
• Husband’s consent was required should the wife
renounce inheritance, enter into a contract, or litigate
• The conjugal regime was more exhaustively regulated
• Natural children were defined as those born of parents
who, at the time of child’s conception or birth, could
have married lawfully and without dispensation

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 LEYES DE TORO
Law of Property
•A provision governs interruption of
prescriptive periods.
Law of Descent
• Persons subject to the penalty of death can make wills
• Testamentary age fixed at 14, males; at 12 , females
• Legitimate ascendants were made compulsory heirs in
default of children or descendants; as heirs, these
ascendants excluded collateral relatives of the
descendant

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 LEYES DE TORO
Law of Descent
•In default of descendants and ascendants,
brothers and sisters inherited by intestacy;
and in the representation of predeceased
brothers or sisters, nephews and nieces
inherited per stirpes, not per capita.
“Love, it is said, first descends, then
ascends, and, finally, spreads sideways” (In
the Matter of the Intestate Estate of Cristina Aguinaldo-Suntay,
G.R. No. 183053, June 16, 2010)

25
 LEYES DE TORO
Law of Descent
• All kinds of illegitimate children were excluded
by legitimate descendants from the
succession of the mother; but in the absence
of legitimate descendants, these illegitimates
succeeded to the mother’s estate to the
exclusion of legitimate ascendants.
• Mejora could be given either by will or consent
• Mayorazgos were regulated.

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 LEYES DE TORO
Law of Obligations & Contracts

• Donations of the universality of the

donor’s patrimony were prohibited,
even if only present property was
included therein.

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 a n y person who Obligations are
person through an civil or natural.
w h o act of C i v i l
“Like the Corpus
wilfully performanc
NATURAL obligations give
causes e by
Juris Civilis, our
loss or 53% a right of action
injury to
another, or
LAW
SPANISH CIVIL CODE OF 1889 to compel their
Civil Code
another in
any other
means, performance.
VIOLATION
manner
enacted the morals
OF MORALS
that is
acquires or
comes into
CIVIL CODE N a t u r a l
obligations,
NATURALnot
of the Catholic
contrary
to morals,
possession
o
UNJUST
f OF THE being based on
OBLIGATIONS
ENRICHMENT positive law but
religion into law,
g o o d
customs
something
PHILIPPINES on equity and
at the
and perpetuated
or public
policy
expense of
ANGLO-AMERICAN
natural law, do
not grant a
the latter
the institutions
s h a l l without EQUITY AND TORTS right of action
compensa just or to enforce their
of Catholicism.”
te the l e g a l performance,
latter for ground, but after
t h e shall return voluntary
damage the same to fulfillment by
private Every person
individual, entirely
separate shall respect the
w h o
directly or and distinct d i g n i t y ,
i n d i re c t l y from the personality,
obstructs, criminal AMERICAN privacy and
defeats, action, may COMMON LAW peace of mind
violates or be brought of his neighbors
in any by the a nACTIONS
d o t h e FOR r
INDEPENDENT
manner injured
party. Such
CIVIL CODE p eDAMAGES
r s o n s . T h FOR
e
impedes or following and
CIVIL ACTIONS
impairs any
of the
civil action
s h a l l
OF THE VIOLATION
s iCONSTITUTIONAL
OF milar acts,
t h o u gRIGHTS
h they
following
rights and
proceed
independe PHILIPPINES may not
liberties of ntly of the constitute a
another criminal INDIVIDUALISM c r i m i n a l
p e r s o n prosecution offense, shall
shall be , and shall produce a cause
liable to require of action for
the latter only a
prepondera
damages,
f o r
nce of prevention and
damages:

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 E.O. 209
Series of 1987
PERSONS
& FAMILY THE
CIVIL CODE FAMILY CODE
OF THE
PROPERTY
OF THE PHILIPPINES

PHILIPPINES
OWNERSHIP
MEDIEVAL OUTLOOK ON MARRIAGE
OBLIGATIONS & “contract between families rather than individuals”
SPECIAL CONTRACT * REQUISITES OF
CONTRACTS MARRIAGE * PARENTAL CONSENT
PARENTAL ADVICE * COUNSELING
* CLERGY AS SOLEMNIZING OFFICERS
* PSYCHOLOGICAL INCAPACITY

30
 PROPERTY
PERSONS sovereignty of the owner
jus possidendi | jus utendi | jus fruendi
CIVIL CODE | jus abutendi | jus disponendi
PROPERTY
OF THE jus vindicandi | jus accessiones
PHILIPPINES
OWNERSHIP
SUCCESSION
OBLIGATIONS & conservation of property in
CONTRACTS the family

31
 OBLIGATIONS &
CONTRACTS
PERSONS
“that each individual be at
CIVIL CODE liberty to make use of his
natural powers in bargains
PROPERTY
OF THE and exchanges and promises
except as he interfered with
PHILIPPINES
OWNERSHIP
like action on the part of his
OBLIGATIONS & fellow men, or with some
CONTRACTS other of their natural rights.” -
Roscoe Pound

32
 OBLIGATIONS &
PERSONS CONTRACTS
CIVIL CODE Romanized will theory of contract
PROPERTY “Obligations arising from
OF THE contracts have the force of
PHILIPPINES
OWNERSHIP law between the contracting
parties and should be
OBLIGATIONS &
CONTRACTS complied with in good faith.”

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36
 GROWTH OF CUSTOMS AND
TRADITION
(fear of the supernatural)

LAW
(under a monarch / king)
(etched on stone /
written on a tablet)

CENTRALIZED ADMINISTRATION
OF JUSTICE

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MAGNA CARTA LIBERTATUM

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Parties who do not come to court with
clean hands cannot be allowed to profit
from their own wrongdoing. The action
(or inaction) of the party seeking equity
must be "free from fault, and he must
have done nothing to lull his adversary
into repose, thereby obstructing and
preventing vigilance on the part of the
latter." (Hilltop Market v. Yaranon,
G.R. 188057, July 12, 2017)

50
51
As between creditors, the key phrase is
"equality is equity.” When a corporation
threatened by bankruptcy is taken over by
a receiver, all the creditors should stand
on an equal footing. Not anyone of them
should be given any preference by paying
one or some of them ahead of the others.
(Consuelo and Araneta v. Court of
Appeals, G.R. 95253, July 10, 1992)

52
It is based on the natural equity that
the plaintiff should not be allowed to
appropriate the whole of a judgment
in his favor without paying thereout
for the services of his attorney in
obtaining such judgment.
(Sesbreño, v. Court of Appeals,
G.R. No. 161390, April 16, 2008)

53
54
It is indubitable that the vendee of the land has a right
to receive, and the vendor the corresponding
obligation to transfer to him, not only the possession
and enjoyment of the land but also the certificate of
title. The trial court recognized that right of the vendor
but it professed to be helpless to enforce it. In
dismissing his complaint and, in effect, denying him a
remedy, the trial court forgot a maxim which is as old
as the law itself. Ubi jus ibi remedium. Where there is
a right, there is a remedy (Gabila v. Perez, G.R.
L-29541, January 27, 1989)

55
The dismissal of the case would not be in
keeping with the demands of judicial policy as
well as equity. Courts, as a matter of judicial
policy, must strive to settle the entire
controversy in a single proceeding leaving no
root or branch to bear the seeds of future
litigation (Cruz v. Court of Appeals, G.R.
134090, July 2, 1999)

56
57
Estoppel by laches has its origins in
equity. It prevents a party from
presenting his or her claim "when, by
reason of abandonment and
negligence, he or she allowed a long
time to elapse without presenting it.”
(Amoguis v. Ballado, G.R. 189626,
August 20, 2018)

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Equity, as the complement of legal jurisdiction,
seeks to reach and complete justice where courts
of law, through the inflexibility of their rules and
want of power to adapt their judgments to the
special circumstances of cases, are incompetent
to do so. Equity regards the spirit and not the
letter, the intent and not the form, the substance
rather than the circumstance, as it is variously
expressed by different courts. (G.R. No.
190755, November 24, 2010, Land Bank of
the Philippines v. Ong)

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Entrenched absolute ideas into the
legal thinking of the Americans:

(1)Right and Justice are paramount;

and
(2)Rights are products of the human
will and outgrowths of the social
contract.

63
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LAW

LAW 600 - FOUNDATION OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC LAW

DR. AMADO F. MARALIT

AMERICAN CULTURE,
CONSTITUTIONALISM,
AND THE COMMON LAW
Erickson A. Sandel

64
 The overarching value that underpins American
constitutionalism is liberty of the individual.
Liberty implies freedom of enterprise and industry.
The hegemony of economic forces during the
American Industrial Revolution catapulted the
economic doctrine of laissez faire into U.S. political
thought.

LAI SSEZ FAI RE

Unit n
ed St tu tio
ates
Consti

65
 1856 1868 1876 1886 “to pursue any

AMERICAN
livelihood or
avocation, and
Sta. Clara for that purpose
Treatise on County v. to enter into all
Wynehamer Munn v. Southern
v. New York Illinois
Limitations of contracts which
Pacific

INDUSTRIAL
Police Power Railroad may be proper”

No law can
Thomas US Supreme A juridical
deprive a man Allgeyer v.
Cooley person can

REVOLUTION
of his property Court upheld
the power of invoke due Louisiana
without due
government to process of law
process of law
regulate private
Christopher
industries
Constitutional Tiedeman 1897
Limitations 1886
 PRIVATE PROPERTY
FREEDOM TO CONTRACT
INDUSTRIALISM
BUSINESS
PROFIT MOTIVE
INDIVIDUALISM
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