Civil Law is defined as the mass of precepts which determines and regulates those relations of assistance, authority and

obedience existing among members of a family as well as among members of as society for the protection of private interests. A Civil Code is defined as a collection of laws, which regulates the private relations of the members of civil society, determining the respective rights and obligations, with reference to persons, things and civil acts.

Roxas Code Commission (Executive Order No. 48) March 20, 1947

January 26, 1949 Senate and House of Representatives passed Republic Act 386 An Act to Ordain and Institute the Civil Code of the Philippines

Law took effect 15 days after publication of the Official Gazette. The Code took effect 1 year after publication.

The 1950 Civil Code of the Philippines took effect on August 30, 1950.

Executive Order 200. Amended Article 2 of the Civil Code on June 18, 1987

Article 2. Laws shall take effect after fifteen days following the completion of their publication either in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines unless it is otherwise provided. This code shall take effect one year after such publication. Executive Order No. 200

PROVIDING FOR THE PUBLICATION OF LAWS EITHER IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE OR IN A NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL CIRCULATION IN THE PHILIPPINES AS A REQUIREMENT OFR THEIR EFFECTIVITY Possible causes: Accessibility of the Official Gazette

Periodicals are more easily available, have a wide circulation, and come out regularly. The publication and the fifteen day period requirements are intended to enable the people to become familiar with the statute. UNLESS IT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED Refers to the 15-day period and not to the requirement of publication. Publication is an indispensible requisite, the absence of which will not render the law effective. If a law provides that it shall take effect immediately, theres still a need for its publication. For it would amount to lack of due process if a law would take effect without it being published. Once published, the people are presumed to have knowledge of the law, even if they have not read it. Presumptive knowledge is sufficient. Actual knowledge is not necessary for as long as the people comply with it as a rule of conduct.

If the law provides for a different period shorter or longer than the fifteen day period provided by Section 1 of Executive Order No. 200, then such shorter or longer period, as the case may be, will prevail. Of the law provides that it shall take effect immediately, it means that it shall take effect immediately after publication with the fifteen-day period being dispensed with.

Ex-Post Facto Law An ex post facto law (Latin for "from after the action" or "after the fact"), also called a retroactive law, is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law. In criminal law, it may criminalize actions that were legal when committed; it may aggravate a crime by bringing it into a more severe category than it was in when it was committed; it may change the punishment prescribed for a crime, as by adding new penalties or extending sentences; or it may alter the rules of evidence in order to make conviction for a crime likelier than it would have been when the deed was committed. Conversely, a form of ex post facto law commonly called an amnesty law may decriminalize certain acts or alleviate possible punishments (for example by replacing the death sentence with lifelong imprisonment) retroactively. Such laws are also known by the Latin term in mitius. A law may have an ex post facto effect without being technically ex post facto. For example, when a law repeals a previous law, the repealed legislation is no longer applicable to situations to which it previously was, even if such situations arose before the law was repealed. The principle of prohibiting the continued application of such laws is called Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali, especially in European Continental systems.

Ignorance of Law The rationale of the doctrine is that if ignorance were an excuse, a person charged with criminal offenses or a subject of a civil lawsuit would merely claim that he or she is unaware of the law in question to avoid liability, even though the person really does know what the law in question is. Thus, the law imputes knowledge of all laws to all persons within the jurisdiction no matter how transiently. Even though it would be impossible, even for someone with substantial legal training, to be aware of every law in operation in every aspect of a state's activities, this is the price paid to ensure that willful blindness cannot become the basis of exculpation. Thus, it is well settled that persons engaged in any undertakings outside what is common for a normal person, such as running a nuclear power plant, will make themselves aware of the laws necessary to engage in that undertaking. If they do not, they cannot complain if they incur liability. The doctrine assumes that the law in question has been properly published and distributed, for example, by being printed in a government gazette, made available over the internet, or printed in volumes available for sale to the public at affordable prices.