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PHILOSOPHY OF LAW
Nuremberg Trials
Fairness of Nuremberg Trials were put in question because the trials violated the
prohibition against ex post facto laws because they were tried and charged for acts
which were not punishable by law when they were committed.
The Germans being meticulous record keepers, there was no count of the Nuremberg
Trials that could not be proven by books and records.
The four counts indicted in the Nuremberg Trial are crimes against humanity, crimes
against peace, war crimes and conspiracy in plotting a war of aggression
The fairness of the Nuremberg Trials was put in question because it could be viewed as
high politics masquerading as law
Is Law Necessary
On the matter of necessity of law, Augustine taught that law was a natural necessity to
curb mans sinful nature/an indispensable restraint to curb inclination to evil.
The law is not power but restraint on power
Anarchism means literally a society without an arkhos without a ruler.
Marx envisaged the overthrow of the capitalist society by a violent revolution of the
oppressed proletariat.
In the broadest sense, it is true that the law is a logical development of everything else.
The deeply felt human need for order demands the combination of the essential
elements of authority and force (coercion).
Aquinas provided an important basis for secular view of law as a potentially beneficent
force for setting man upon the path of social harmony and welfare.
The notion of authority acknowledged as legitimate is derive from any link with moral
obligation.
There is a moral duty to obey the law because the law represents legitimate authority.
Sanctions, in law, refer to any coercive process by which the law seeks to impose its
will upon an offender or who is someone at fault who has failed to comply with a legal
order or judgment.
A sanction does not necessarily involve imposition of a physical penalty in the form of
punishment.
Authority or legitimate domination may take three forms: 1. Charismatic 2. Traditional 3.
Legal
The belief in the legitimacy of legal domination involves a circular argument: laws are
legitimate if they are enacted and an enactment is legitimate if it conforms to the rules
which prescribe the procedures to be followed.
Harm principle states that the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised
over any member of a civilized community against his will is to prevent harm to others
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All acts that can cause harm on others in any form are covered by the harm
principle
The Hebraic view of divine law really resulted in equating law with morality
The Greek view is that human law may conflict with moral law but the citizen must still
obey the law of his state.
The close parallelism between codes of morals and of law is sufficiently brought out by a
common feature of similarity (sameness) of the normative language that each employs
as set of conduct.
Rationalism is the idea that the universe governed by intelligible laws capable of being
grasped by the human mind.
Rationalism entails the idea of a moral law of a rational kind whose imperative
character derives from the fact that mans reason must necessarily accept the rational
solution as the moral or true one.
Rationalism is the belief in the possibility of attaining true understanding of the world
through the power of human reason guided by human observation.
The libertarian proposition, according to John Stuart Mill, states that the law should
not intervene in matters of private moral conduct more than necessary to preserve public
order and to protect the citizens against what is injurious and offensive.
The whole idea of guilt in criminal law is linked with the idea of moral responsibility and
in this way, morals reinforce the authority of the law and the duty to render obedience to
its decrees.
For Martin Luther King, the purpose of the direct-action program is negotiation. It is
wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. It is just as wrong, perhaps even
more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.
The two spheres of lawful authority and morality are separable and distinguishable.
A law is just when it squares with moral law or the law of God and it is unjust when it is
out of harmony with moral or natural or eternal law.
The public morality expressed in law is not necessarily religious morality.
Natural law philosophers argue that law is that which reflects the built-in sense of right
and wrong that exists within every person at birth
Stoicism stressed the universality of human nature and the brotherhood of man and
emphasized reason as an essential characteristic of humanity
Christian philosophers readily adapted Stoic natural law theory.
Legal Positivism
Legal positivists have consistently urged that human law must be regard as valid and
entitled to obedience whatever its moral content.
For positivists, human laws are valid and are binding even if contrary to the laws of God.
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Legal positivism is a theory which treats the autonomy of each spheres of law and
morality as exclusive
On the whole, positivist shares with the natural lawyer a rationalist approach to the moral
values of his society
Both natural law and legal positivism are rational creeds which may be contrasted with
the various forms of irrationalism which have emerged in modern times i.e. Fascism and
Nazism.
People v. Veneracion
It is a well-settled rule that the courts are not concerned with the wisdom, efficacy and
morality of laws.
That question falls exclusively within the province of the Legislature which enacts them
and the Chief Executive who approves or vetoes them. The only function of the judiciary
is to interpret the laws and, if not in disharmony with the Constitution, to apply them.
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Justice is the more general purpose the law everywhere aims at achieving.
Law must be assimilated to justice and law without justice is a mockery, if not a
contradiction.
For Plato, the microcosm of the just man is a reflection of the pattern of the just society.
Platonic justice views that every person or thing has its own proper sphere in the order
of things and justice consists of conforming to that sphere (like a doctor is within the
sphere of healing the sick)
Platos system seems based on the fallacy that each man is by nature fitted for one job
or function and that there is such a job or function adapted to each persons natural
attainments or aptitudes (some are born naturally as slaves and only fitted to serve)
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For the Greeks, there is a basic connection between justice and equality.
Among the Greek philosophers, justice essentially embodied the idea of inequality.
o Because the lack of natural equality between human beings called for different
treatment
The attaining of equality, not the preserving of inequality, that modern moral and legal
philosophy treat as the vital function of justice
In modern times, equality has been regarded as the very essence of justice.
This idea of justice being linked with equality of treatment owes much to that association
of justice with legal proceedings.
Formal principle of equality: A law applied without discrimination applied equally in
all situations and to all persons whether rich or poor without fear or favor may be
regarded as embodiment of justice.
o Not to be understood as treat everyone alike regardless of individual differences
This may lead to condemnation of a mentally incapacitated person to the
same punishment for non-mentally incapacitated
o What is really meant is that like shall be treated alike. Everyone within a same
category is to be treated in the same way.
o Persons who are equal should be treated equally and those who are different
should be treated differently
Formal justice requires equality of treatment in accordance with classification laid down
by the rules but does not state how people are to be classified or treated.
o Formal justice is an empty category. If it is to be given specific content, other
principles than mere formal equality are needed.
A certain measure of coherence and regularity is a vital feature of any legal system but
no exact standard can be laid down by this measure is to be judged.
Three types of legal injustice:
o The law is so closely linked in the general opinion of justice with the idea of
justice and it is treated as synonymous to justice.
Legal injustice is committed when a case is decided contrary to what the
law lays down.
o The law is not duly administered in the spirit of impartiality it requires
o When law, though perfectly impartially administered, is itself unjust if judged by
whatever value system applied to test the substantial justice of the rule.
The three features of formal justice are (1) existing and applicable laws laying how
people are to be treated (2) general in character (generality) and (3) impartially
applied.
Open society is where a wide field left for personal decision and for assuming of
individual responsibility
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Sovereign in present usage is that person or body which is the supreme legislator in a
given community.
The power to change the law is the reason that such legislator is regarded as the
possessor of the ultimate legal authority in the state.
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Obiter dictum is something said passing in the form of a judicial comment made within
a judicial opinion but is unnecessary to the decision of the case and therefore not
precedential.
Ratio decidendi is the reason for the decision or the principle of law in which the decision
of the court is founded.
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Law steps in the realm of social life by defining and determining the rules governing civil
responsibility and builds a complex of rules into which classes of activities may be fitted
and controlled.
The law is not merely concerned with task of translating everyday occurrences into legal
terms.
Many fundamental legal concepts are to a large extent legal creations in their own right
with a vitality of their own and may set off a chain of social and economic reactions.
o Lloyds examples
concept of trust (property held by one party (trustee) for the benefit of
another)
limited liability of commercial company (Ltd., LLC, etc.)
intellectual property (patent rights, copyright, trademark)
Legal concepts tend to develop a life of their own which may lead to many unexpected
paths by their own vitality and the laws of their own inherent logic
Legal concepts like other symbols of mans creativity are apt to possess a vitality of their
own which may end by leading their authors instead of being led by the authors.
o Concepts are excellent servants but not always good masters.
o May result in the hardening of the arteries of the body of law; undue rigidity and
inability to adapt to new social situations; no alternative but to work out the strict
logical implications of the rules
Law is a great complex of rules, precepts, standards and principles in a process of
continuous but slow-moving flux, not just a static collection of ascertainable rules.
Group personality is attribution of personality not just to an individual human being but
to group or associations. It is the treatment of such groups as persons in their own right
possessing continuity and a separate identity from the particular individuals who
composes the group.
o This is the underlying concept of juridical persons
American jurist Hohfeld made an important contribution to modern legal theory through
his analysis of the traditional legal pattern of rights and duties.
The traditional right-duty pattern can be split up into four distinct pairs of correlatives:
rightduty, libertyno-right, powerliability, and immunitydisability.
The rightduty correlative should be confined to the situation where one person is
entitled by legal process to compel another person to act in a certain way, i.e. enforcing
payment of a debt.
Libertyno-right is the correspondence of a legal consequence of others having noright to interfere with the exercise of a liberty or privilege.
Powerliability represents a legal power to produce a change in the legal relationships
of other persons who are therefore liable to have their legal relations changed in such
way e.g. disposition of properties by will
Immunitydisability applies wherein a person enjoys freedom from having a given legal
relationship altered by an act of another person e.g. immunity from suit of the President
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Where is the bottleneck in our system for hearing and deciding cases?
o The bottleneck is at the witness stand.
Why?
o Because courts can hear no more than one witness at a time. Assuming that
there are just two witnesses per case, 2,000 witnesses would be waiting to be
called in courts that have 1,000 cases in their dockets. If required to form a line
outside the courtroom, those 2,000 witnesses would form a very long line indeed
with only three witnesses getting in to testify on an ordinary hearing day
What has been done in order to partly solve these problems?
o To partly solve these problems, the 2012 Judicial Affidavit Rule directs the
parties to use judicial affidavits of witnesses in place of their direct testimonies.
This change has cut down the time needed for hearing cases by two-thirds, since
the examination of witnesses normally consists of two-thirds direct and one-third
cross. The proposed rules of civil procedure have adopted this change.
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