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The Comparative Study of the Judicial Role and Its Effect on the Theory on Judicial
Precedents in the Philippine Hybrid Legal System
Cesar Lapuz Villanueva
o Adapt and adjust rigid and inflexible provision of law, rendered inadequate
by time and circumstances, to the changing conditions of life and society.
Draft of NCC which was not included in actual law: when there is no law
applicable to point at issue
o the general or local customs
o judge shall apply rule which he believes the lawmaking body would lay down
guided by the general principles of law and justice
o analogous laws
o foreign legislation and decisions
o opinions of jurists
o legal maxims
Tolentino: use positive law, customs, jurisprudence, jurisconsults and
commentators
Art 9: No judge/court shall decline to render judgment by reason of silence,
obscurity or insufficiency of the laws
Characteristics of Theory
Irony: Judicial decisions are submitted to be sources of law but do not
constitute law
Hierarchical Application
o Decisions of SC are binding laws, while CA decisions on issues not covered by
the SC serve merely as a judicial guide.
o Decisions of other hand are not considered binding at all
o Lower court should be allowed to depart from decisions of superior tribunals
as a direct way of provoking reexamination of an important legal question
o Ratio:
Assure stability in legal relations and avoid confusion, it has to speak with
one voice with finality, logically and rightly through the highest tribunal.
Has to be definitive and authoritative.
To do otherwise could result to inconsistency in rulings in the lower courts
There has never been a consistent reporter system of CA, other special courts
nor CFI decisions
Hierarchical application provides a testing ground for legal issues to be
clarified to lay down solid judicial background for an SC review
o Grounds for review by the SC of CA decisions
CA decided a question of substance not determined by SC or probably not in
accord with law or decisions of SC
CA departed from accepted and usual course of judicial proceedings
Modal Scope
o
Doctrinal Form