LEGAL RESEARCH & THESIS WRITING – Atty. Luansing (A.
Y 2019-2020)
Introduction
Definition of Legal Research
• Searching for AUTHORITY that can be applied to a given set
of facts and issues
• Systematic (organized), empirical (data collection), controlled
investigation of a legal authority to support legal issues, facts,
or a court decision
Legal Authority
• How many authorities do we have?
o TWO. Primary (binding) and Secondary (Persuasive)
• Sources
o Primary Sources
▪ Authentic and official repositories of case and
statutory law
▪ Contains reproduction or exact copies of
statutes, treatises, ordinances, and reports of
judicial decisions
▪ Published by the issuing agency itself or by
the Official Gazette and other official
publications
o Secondary Sources
▪ Unofficial sources; those commercially
published
▪ Written by commentators or text writers
stating their comments, criticism, opinions
▪ Rule: cite secondary sources in the absence of
primary sources
• Binding effects
o SC decisions – binding
o Appellate courts, inferior courts, quasi-judicial courts’
decisions – not binding (secondary)
o International cases – not binding
o PROCESS OF DETERMINING IF SOURCE IS
PRIMARY & BINDING:
▪ Identify related laws governing legal issues
(define the issue)
▪ Identify in the law cited if it is applicable to
your case
▪ Apply cited law to the facts of your case
• Stare decisis
o adherence by lower courts to doctrinal rules
established by this Court in its final decisions. It is
based on the principle that once a question of law has
been examined and decided, it should be deemed
settled and closed to further argument.
o LIMITS ON APPLYING STARE DECISIS (Ting v.
Velez-Ting):
▪ it would not be followed if it were "plainly
unreasonable"
▪ where courts of equal authority developed
conflicting decisions
▪ the binding force of the decision was the
"actual principle or principles necessary for
the decision; not the words or reasoning used
to reach the decision."
• Pacta sunt servanda
o performance in good faith of treaty obligations on the
part of the states that enter into the agreement
• Res judicata
o All issues/facts decided by SC & lower courts w/
finality cannot be refiled
o ELEMENTS OF RES JUDICATA:
▪ Court of competent jurisdiction
▪ Final judgment or order on the merits
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LEGAL RESEARCH & THESIS WRITING – Atty. Luansing (A.Y 2019-2020)

▪Identities of parties, subject matter, and cause

of action
o PURPOSES OF RES JUDICATA:
▪ Appeal without re-litigation on same-level
courts
▪ Avoid clogged dockets
▪ Avoid violating the rules of court
o CONSEQUENCES OF VIOLATING RES
JUDICATA:
▪ Double jeopardy
▪ Disrespect towards other courts
▪ Costly
▪ Clogged dockets
Hierarchy of Laws

• Most supreme to most inferior

o Constitution -> Statutes -> IRR

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LEGAL RESEARCH & THESIS WRITING – Atty. Luansing (A.Y 2019-2020)
The Philippine Constitution
Definition
• It is that body of rules and maxims in accordance with which
the powers of sovereignty are habitually exercised. With
particular reference to the Constitution of the Philippines: That
written instrument enacted by direct action of the people by
which the fundamental powers of the government are
established, limited and defined, and by which those powers
are distributed among the several departments for their safe
and useful exercise for the benefit of the body politic.
Purposes and importance
• defines powers, duties, and mandates of the three branches of
gov’t
• prescribe the permanent framework of a system of
government, to assign to the several departments their
respective powers and duties, and to establish certain first
principles on which the government is founded
Classes of Constitutions
• Written or unwritten (codified/not codified) — A written
constitution is one whose precepts are embodied in one
document or set of documents; while an unwritten constitution
consists of rules which have not been integrated into a single,
concrete form but are scattered in various sources, such as
statutes of a fundamental character, judicial decisions,
commentaries of publicists, customs and traditions, and certain
common law principles
• Rigid or Flexible — A rigid Constitution is one that can be
amended only by a formal and usually difficult process; while a
flexible Constitution is one that can be changed by ordinary
legislation
• Enacted (Conventional) or Evolved (Cumulative) — A
conventional constitution is enacted, formally struck off at a
definite time and place following a conscious or deliberate
effort taken by a constituent body or ruler; while a cumulative
constitution is the result of political evolution, not inaugurated
at any specific time but changing by accretion rather than by
any systematic method.
4 Constitutions in the Philippines
• Malolos Constitution
o natural and civil rights of Filipinos
o provision on right to life, liberty, and property
o transition from Spanish; right against self-
incrimination is present (cannot testify against yourself
w/o consent)
o religious freedom and beliefs
o unicameral legislative system
• 1935 Constitution (Commonwealth)
o US under Treaty of Paris gave PH 10 years for
transition to prove that we can be an independent
country from US
o all laws were called as “commonwealth act”
o PH is treated as a republican and democratic state
▪ Republican: all government authority
emanates from the people and is exercised by
representatives chosen by the people.
▪ Democratic: based on “initiative and
referendum”; use of this word is also a
monument to the February Revolution which
re-won freedom through direct action of the
people.
o provision re: Bill of Rights
o bicameral
o establishment of COMELEC
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LEGAL RESEARCH & THESIS WRITING – Atty. Luansing (A.Y 2019-2020)
• 1973 Constitution
o Because of lawless violence, threat to security, Marcos
declared Martial Law
o parliamentary form of gov’t
o Pres has right to issue laws (Presidential Decrees)
o after 1 year, unicameral again (National Assembly)
• 1987 Constitution
o bicameral (Senate separate from HoR)
o Executive Orders – laws issued by Pres
o creation of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Court
(Sandiganbayan)
o creation of three constitutional bodies
▪ Commission on Audit
▪ Commission on Elections
▪ Civil Service Commission
Principle of Hierarchy and Precedence
• How can a law be ineffective?
o Declared by SC as unconstitutional
o Repealed by another law
The State
• Elements:
o People: community of persons sufficient number and
capable of maintaining the continued existence of the
community and held together by a common bond of
law. It is of no legal consequence if they possess
diverse racial, cultural, or economic interests.
o Territory: Terrestrial, Fluvial, Maritime and Aerial
domains, including the territorial sea, the seabed, the
subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas.
The waters around, between, and connecting the
islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth
and dimensions which form part of the internal waters
of the Philippines
o Government: agency or instrumentality through which
the will of the State is formulated, expressed and
realized
o Sovereignty: supreme and uncontrollable power
inherent in a State by which that State is governed.
• Fundamental powers
o Police Power: inherent and plenary power of the state
which enables it to prohibit all that is hurtful to the
comfort, safety and welfare of society
o Eminent Domain: ultimate right of the sovereign
power to appropriate, not only the public but the
private property of all citizens within the territorial
sovereignty, to public purpose
o Taxation: power by which the State raises revenue to
defray the necessary expenses of the Government. It is
the enforced proportional contributions from persons
and property, levied by the State by virtue of its
sovereignty, for the support of the government and
for all public needs.
• Ex post facto law
o prohibits retrospectivity of penal laws which are
prejudicial to the accused
• Lex loci rei sitae v lex loci celebrationis
o Lex Loci Rei Sitae: law of the place where the thing or
subject matter is situated; the title to realty or question
of real estate law can be affected only by the law of the
place where it is situated
o Lex Loci Celebrationis: law of the place where the
contract is made
• Ultra vires
o Acting beyond one’s legal power or authority
• Locus standi
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LEGAL RESEARCH & THESIS WRITING – Atty. Luansing (A.Y 2019-2020)

o personal and substantial interest in a case such that the

party has sustained or will sustain direct injury as a
result of the governmental act that is being challenged.

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