LEGAL RESEARCH

1. Cross-reference
accuracy

What is Legal Research?

The process of identifying and retrieving
information necessary to support legal decisionmaking. In its broadest sense, it includes each
step of a course of action that begins with an
analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes
with the application and communication of the
results of the investigation. - J. Myron
Jacobstein
and
Roy
M.
Mersky,
Fundamentals of Legal Research, 8th ed.

materials

for

2. Ensure materials are up-to-date

Communicate results
1. Present answers or results clearly
and concisely
2. Cite
sources
accurately

correctly

and

(Foundation Press, 2002) p. 1

Purpose of Legal Research

Steps in Legal Research

To find authority that will aid in finding a

solution to a legal problem. - Cornell
University Legal Information Institute,
Legal Research: An Overview

Three Basic Steps

1. Problem identification and analysis
2. Information search and retrieval

Types of Authority
PRIMARY AUTHORITY

3. Communication of results
Identify & analyze the problem

Rules of law that are binding upon

the
courts,
government
and
individuals

Consists of the law itself, as

expressed in the verbatim texts of
the statute or case law

1. Collect the facts

2. Classify the facts
3. Determine legal issue/s
4. Identify the jurisdiction

1.

The Constitution

Search & retrieve information

1. Find materials relevant to your

subject

3. Statutes or statutory law

1. Use finding tools

4. Legislative enactments

2. Secondary, primary, rules

3. Traditional
sources
Cases,
jurisprud
ence
Encyclop
edia,
dictionar
y

Comprehe
nsive
Legal
Research

Law
Review
s,
Journal
s

and

electronic

Statutes
, codes,
rules &
regulatio
ns

Congres
sional
debates

The fundamental law of the

land

5. Executive issuances
3.

4.

Administrative or agency law

Issued by agencies charged with

regulating an area of conduct

Rules and regulations

Case law

5.

Decided or written opinions

by courts

Muslim or Sharia law

Islamic
law
customary law

and

Embraces
legal,
social, political and
civil relations

Sources of Primary Authority

Materials that analyze, explain, or criticize

the law or that help find legal authority
(finding tools)

Resources about the law and not the law

itself

The Legislative Branch

The Congress of the Philippines

Secondary Authority
1. Legal encyclopedias

Bicameral
o The Senate
o The House of Representatives

2. Legal dictionaries
3. Restatements

Legislative Enactments

Acts (1900-1935, 4,275)

Commonwealth Acts (1935-1945, 733)

Republic Acts (1946-1972; 1987-2013,

10,606)

Mga Batas Pambansa (1979-1985, 884)

[issued by the unicameral Batasang
Pambansa]

4. Treatises
5. Legal periodicals
6. Practice materials
Hierarchy

The Executive Branch

Office of the President

Treaties and international agreements

Administrative
Agencies: Orders,
Rules, Rulings, Memorandum Orders and
Circulars

Local government units: ordinances

The Judiciary
The Supreme Court

Rules of Court: Civil Procedure, Special

Proceedings,
Criminal
Procedure,
Evidence, Summary Procedure, Small
Claims Cases, Environmental Cases
Jurisprudence or case law: Decisions
and Resolutions (1901 to the present,
over 70,000)

SECONDARY AUTHORITY

International secondary

Presidential Decrees (Marcos 19721985,

2,034),
Executive
Orders
(Aquino, E.O. No. 136), Proclamations

Commentaries on the law that do not have

binding effect but aid in explaining what
the law is or should be

International Primary
Local
Secondary
Local
Primary

*To jumpstart your research, you can start with

International secondary or Local secondary
Classification of Law
BY APPLICATION

Mandatory
Primary authorities: considered in making
a determination in a legal matter
Statutes,
presidential
issuances,
international treaties and conventions,
administrative rules and regulations, local
ordinances, case law
Must be followed and must be cited first
In case law, the principle of stare decisis
et non quieta movere (to adhere to
precedents and not to unsettle things that
are established) is applied

Art. 8 of the Civil Code: Judicial

decisions applying or interpreting the
laws or the Constitution shall form part
of the legal system of the Philippines.
Adherence to judicial precedents
o

1.

2.

Persuasive

Considered when there is no

mandatory authority on a subject
matter

Laws and decisions of other

jurisdictions

Opinions
of
government
agencies (BIR, DOJ)

Executive
interpretation
of
legislative enactments
is accorded weight by
the judiciary

Treatises, law review articles

Persuasive
cited

authorities

may

be

BY SOURCE
Primary
Official records of the statute or
case law as published by the
issuing agencies
Secondary
Published by private or commercial
entities
Primary Sources
1.

2.

Statutory law

Congressional records

Official Gazette (O.G.)

Pursuant to E.O. No. 200 (1987):

newspapers of general circulation

Case law

Philippine Reports

Official Gazette

Advanced Sheets

Secondary Sources

Statutory law
a. Vital Legal Documents
b. Commentaries, textbooks
c. Lex Libris Laws, Philippine Law
Encyclopedia, Lawphil, Chan Robles
Case law
a. Supreme Court Reports Annotated
(SCRA)
b. Supreme Court Advanced Decisions
(SCAD)
c. Lex Libris Jurisprudence

Harnessing Technology for Legal Research

In the old days
the common practice was that the
researcher would source his materials mostly
from available law books and published articles
on print. When he found a relevant item in a
book, whether for one side of the issue or for
the other, he would place a strip of paper
marker on the appropriate page, pencil mark the
item, and place the book on his desk where
other relevant books would have piled up
He would later paraphrase or copy the
marked out passages from some of these books
as he typed his manuscript on a manual
typewriter
Researchers relied only on books, periodicals,
catalogues,
looseleaf
&
other
printed
publications
There was no single repository of complete
legislative enactments, executive issuances, or
jurisprudence
It took time and effort to have access to lawrelated issuances
The Advent of Technology
With the advent of computers,
however... most legal references, including the
collection of decisions of the Court, are found in
electronic diskettes or in internet websites that
offer virtual libraries of books and articles In Re Del Castillo, A.M. No. 10-7-17-SC,
October 12, 2010
Electronic Legal Research

The
use
of
available
technology,
electronic devices and electronic media
for legal research
Used to be referred to as computer-aided
legal research

Gaining much ground in an increasingly

technology-driven legal profession
o

Advantages of ELR

Access to a large amount of legal

information
o Millions
of
pages
of
legal
information, with thousands added
every day
Portable
o Device or media can be carried
around easily
Space-saving
o Device or media can be as small as
the palm of ones hand
Time-saving
o Search engines and customized
search
templates can
produce focused search results, in
seconds
o If you know how to search, you
save even more time
Information in electronic format is
flexible and more easily manipulated
o Can be copied, edited and printed
more easily
Information is easier to update and
can be more current
o Files are easily processed and
uploaded
Cost-effective
o Cheaper in the long run; contains
considerably larger volume of
materials

Choosing an Electronic Tool/Resource

Currentness
Is the database up-to-date?
Is the information up-todate? When was the site last
updated?
Accuracy
What are the sources of the
information?
Are the materials faithful to
the originals?
Choosing an Electronic Tool/Resource
o

Reliability/Credibility
Who
is
the
publisher/administrator?

What is the publishers track

record?
Usability
Is the information properly
arranged? Does it have a
subject index?
How powerful is its search
engine?
Does it come up with
focused results?

Types of Electronic Media

Optical Media
A storage medium or device in which
information, including sounds and/or
images, or software code, has been
stored, either by mastering and/or
replication, which may be accessed and
read using a lens scanning mechanism
employing a high intensity light source
such as a laser or any such other means
as may be developed in the future. (Sec.
3 (i), Republic Act No. 9239, The Optical
Media Act of 2003)
Types of Optical Media

CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-OnlyMemory)

o Stores up to 700 megabytes of
data, up to 300,000 text pages
o Made of plastic & aluminium, can
last a long time with proper use
o Once
stamped, no additional
information may be added
DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disc
Read-Only-Memory)
Holds a minimum of 4.7 GB of data,
enough for a full-length movie or app. 2
million text pages

The Internet

A massive network of computers linked

together and communicating with each
other through a series of protocols
A network of networks of computing
devices

The World Wide Web (www)

The information sharing model built on

top of the Internet
A collection of interconnected documents
linked by hyperlinks and URLs (uniform
resource locators)

Online Legal Resources

Free Sites
Non-commercial; access is free

There are over 200,000 sites on the web

with legal information

Free Sites

Examples of foreign sites

Cornell Legal Information Institute

www.law.cornell.edu

Findlaw www.findlaw.com

Commercial Sites
sites:

Password is required to access data

Contain features and tools that facilitate

focused research

Subscription
or
lexis.com, westlaw

Legal

Online Resources

The
Philippine
Encyclopedia Series

pay-for-use

Official Sites (Primary Sources)

o The Official Government Portal of
Republic of the Philippines gov.ph
o Senate
of
the
Philippines
senate.gov.ph
o House
of
Representatives

congress.gov.ph
o Supreme
Court
website

sc.judiciary.gov.ph
Privately-maintained
sites
(Secondary)
o Lawphil
o Chan Robles
Commercial Sites
o CD
Asia
Online

www.cdasiaonline.com
Contains
Laws
and
Jurisprudence
eSCRA

Online Resources
Distinctions
o
o
o
o

Philippine
Resources

Electronic

Legal

Research

COMMON FEATURES:
Research Tools

Resources on Optical Media

PRIMARY SOURCES

Case Law Supreme Court e-library

(distributed to courts)
Treaties Department of Foreign Affairs
(Treaties of the Philippines)

SECONDARY SOURCES

Publications of private companies

Agoo Institute e-Library
CD Asia publications
o The Philippine Law Library
o Legal Knowledge Titles

Search engine
Content
Organization of information
Other features
Cross-referencing
Cited in

Electronic

Legal

SUBJECT INDEX
o A list of topics arranged in
alphabetical order
o Materials (i.e., legislation, court
decisions, executive issuances)
covering the topic are listed
o The list items are usually linked to
the complete text of the material
HYPERLINKS
An electronic link providing direct access
from one distinctively marked place in a
hypertext or hypermedia document to
another in the same or a different
document (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Quick access to related or connected
information

SEARCH ENGINE

A computer software used to search data

(as text or a database) for specified
information; also: a site on the www that
uses such software to locate key words in
other sites (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
General or site-specific search engines
Used together with search templates and
indexed or tagged information

SEARCH METHODS AND TECHNIQUES

1. Boolean Method - Of, relating to, or
being a logical combinatorial system that
represents symbolically relationships (as
those implied by the logical operators
AND, OR, and NOT) between entities (as
sets, propositions, or on-off computer
circuit
elements)
(Merriam-Webster
Dictionary)
2. Proximity Searching
Allows user to find terms that appear
within a certain number of words of each
other
User can specify the distance (number
of words) between terms
Proximity symbols
o ~: death penalty~5
o Finds documents containing the
words death and penalty within
five (5) words of each other
o Ordered - /: death penalty/5
o Unordered - @: death penalty@5
3. Truncated or Wildcard Searching allows
searching
for
documents
containing variations on a search term
Truncation operators
o = retrieves all entries containing
the letters before the * (replaces
multiple letters)
o Constitut*
Constitution,
constitute, constitutional
o ? = replaces any character in a
search term
o Wom?n woman, women
4. Phrase Searching - use quotation
marks ( ) to capture two or more words
as an exact phrase

Example
:
qualified
theft,
consummated
felonies,
national
territory, breach of promise to marry,
114 PHIL 77

Other Techniques
1. Fuzzy Searching - finds search terms
even if they are misspelled or do not
match a search term exactly (close
matches)
2. Concept/Synonym
Searching
Searches
for
related
concepts
or
synonyms
CONCLUSION

There are many resources available

for legal research.
o Exercise discernment in choosing
research resources and tools
o Use only resources that are
reliable, accurate and current
o For electronic legal research, look
for features that will help fine-tune
your research (i.e., search engines,
query templates, links)
It is worthwhile to invest in good
legal research resources.
o These will be the tools of your
trade. Choose the best.
o Using these resources results in
exponential increase in efficiency
and productivity.
o Be experts as early as now.

Legal research has always been the

unsung hero in the study and practice of law.
Though it has often been relegated to a minor
subject in most programs of legal studies, it
remains of vital importance to all scholars of the
law from the highest of magistrates to the
beginning law freshmen. It need not be
emphasized that the outcome and integrity of
any decision, pleading, or thesis largely depends
upon the authors knowledge and skill in legal
research. - Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno
(Ret.) Milagros Santos-Ong, Philippine Legal
Research (Central Book Supply, 2007)