Revised Outline for Philippine Legal History/UP College of Law/August 2010

AUGUST 2010/REVISED/FINAL OUTLINE PENDING

PHILIPPINE LEGAL HISTORY

Prof. Owen J. Lynch, Visiting Professor/Fulbright Scholar
College of Law, University of the Philippines,
Malcolm Hall, Diliman, Quezon City
August 2010
INTRODUCTION
This course identifies and examines major events and developments
concerning culture, law and history in the Philippines. Philippine legal history
can be divided into four categories: 1) pre-history and indigenous culture
and law; 2) the Spanish colonial era; 3) the US colonial regime; and 4) the
Republic of the Philippines. The focus of this course will be on constitutional
law, governance, civil and human rights, laws concerning land and other
natural resources, and international commodities and trade.
COURSE EXPECTATIONS/REQUIREMENTS
-Reading materials should be read in the order assigned. (Additional readings
may also be assigned during the semester.) Students are expected to read
the assigned materials prior to the day they are scheduled for discussion.
N.B. If time constraints prevent discussion of any materials on the scheduled
day, these materials will be discussed during the following class. In other
words, all assigned materials will be discussed in class in the approximate
order indicated in the outline. In addition, as the semester unfolds, some
changes in the outline and reading assignments may be made to
accommodate guest lecturers and breaking developments.
-A virtual classroom using the Internet has now been created. During the
semester, additional information, various list-serves and other internet
resources may be forwarded via email to students enrolled in the class. In
addition, students will be encouraged to use our virtual classroom to
continue discussions and share other ideas and information on issues
relevant to Philippine Legal History. Students should feel free to email Prof.
Lynch directly at olynch@earthlink.net to set-up an appointment or ask
questions. Questions related to discussions in class can, and most times should, be
copied to all other students in the class.
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Revised Outline for Philippine Legal History/UP College of Law/August 2010

-A complete compilation of assigned reading materials will be available via

the internet and/or in the UP Law Library. More materials may be sent to
students via email.
-Class participation and attendance will account for 30% of the final grade.
The remaining 70% will be based on the final examination.
COURSE OUTLINE
Part One: Introductions, Identification of Key Events and Course
Overview
Part Two: Definitions and Theoretical Approaches
-John
Rawls.
A
Theory
of
Justice
(1971).
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls. Focus on Sections 1 and 4. Be
prepared to discuss Rawls theory of justice as fairness.
-W. Michael Reisman and Aaron M. Schreiber. Jurisprudence: Understanding
and Shaping Law, pp. 1 44, New Haven Press (1987). Available on reserve
in the Law Library. Prof. Lynch will lecture.
-Owen J. Lynch, Colonial Legacies in a Fragile Republic: A History of Philippine
Land Law and State Formation with Emphasis on the Early United States
Regime (1898-1913), JSD dissertation, Yale Law School (1991): Appendix
One, Methodology (Policy Science), pp. i-xv.
Part Three: Pre-History and Indigenous Culture in the 21st Century
-Nick Joaquin, Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of
Philippine Becoming, Ch. 1 Culture as History, pp. 3 35, Mandaluyong:
Solar Publishing (1988). Available on Reserve in the Law Library.
-Perfecto V. Fernandez, Custom Law in Pre-Conquest Philippines: Chapter
One: Pre-conquest Society and Custom Law, pp. 1-19; Chapter Six:
Household and Domestic Relations, pp. 74-98; Chapter Seven: Property
and Contracts, pp. 99-110; Chapter Nine: Remedies and Procedures, pp.
126-136, UP Law Center (1976).
Part Four: The Mythical Regalian Doctrine
-Lynch, Part 1: The Spanish Foundation, Chapter One: Spanish Sovereignty:
The Legal Basis, pp. 48-68. Available on reserve in the UP Law Library.
Earlier draft in the UP Law Journal, Vol. Vol. 62, No. 3 (1987).
Part Five: The Spanish Era Colonial Government

Revised Outline for Philippine Legal History/UP College of Law/August 2010

-Lynch, Colonial Legacies, Chapter Two: Madrid and Manila: Secular Spanish
Participants, pp. 77-100; Chapter Three: Foreign Influences in the Provinces:
Encomenderos, Governors, Priests and Businessmen, pp. 110-132; Chapter
Four: Native Actors: Collaborators, Entrepreneurs, and Proto-Nationalists,
pp. 144-167.

Part Six: The Spanish Era - Colonial Natural Resource Laws

-Lynch, Colonial Legacies: Chapter Five: Emergence of the Documented
Property Regime (1565-1745), pp. 178-194; Chapter Six: Agricultural
Intensification and the Theoretical Extinguishment of Ancestral Domain
Rights, pp. 205-226. Available on reserve in the UP law library. Earlier draft
in the UP Law Journal, Vol. 63, No. 1 (1988).
Part Seven: The 19th Century and the Denouement of the Spanish
Colonial Era
William Henry Scott. Cracks in the Parchment Curtain and Other Essays in
Philippine History. Quezon City: New Day Publishers (1982). Cracks in the
Parchment Curtain, pp. 1-17; History of the Inarticulate, pp. 18-27.
Rene R. Escalante, The American Friar Lands Policy: Its Framers, Context and
Beneficiaries, 1898-1916. Manila: De la Salle University Press (2002).
Chapter Two: Historical Background of the Friar Lands Policy, pp. 15-67.
John A. Larkin, Sugar and the Origins of Modern Philippine Society. Quezon
City: New Day Publishers (2001)(original publisher: University of California
Press (1993)).Chapter Three: Frontiers, 1836-1920, pp.46-101.
Benito J. Legarda, After the Galleons: Foreign Trade, Economic Change and
Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth Century Philippines. Quezon City: Ateneo
de Manila University Press (1999). Chapter Six: Factors Behind the Growth of
the Export Economy, pp. 181-217.
Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso, State and Society in the
Philippines. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing (2005). Chapter Five: Nations and
States, 1872-1913, pp. 102-119.
Part Eight: The Transition: Colonialism and The US Constitution
-Lynch, Colonial Legacies: Chapter Seven, pp.238-284. Earlier draft in the UP
Law Journal, Vol. 63, No. 3 (1987).
Part Nine: Images and Divisions: Colonial Discourse and Divisive
Description of Native Peoples

Revised Outline for Philippine Legal History/UP College of Law/August 2010

-Lynch, Colonial Legacies: Chapter Eight; The Colonial Dichotomy: Attraction

and Disenfranchisement; Chapter Twelve: The Non-Christian Fiefdom:
Disenfranchisement Qua Paternalism, pp. 456-499. Earlier draft in the UP
Law Journal, Vol. 63, No. 2 (1988).
-Scott, The Making of a Cultural Minority, Cracks, pp. 28-41.
Part Ten: The USA and Colonial Government
-Lynch, Colonial Legacies: Chapter Nine: Distant Overseers: US Based
Participants and the Organic Act of 1902; Chapter Ten: Insular Actors:
Governors and Commissioners (1898-1913); Chapter Eleven; Insular
Actors: Subordinate Officials and Politicians.
-Abinales and Amorosoro, Chapter 6 The Filipino Colonial State, 19021946, State and Society, pp. 134-166.
-Amy Rossabi, The Colonial Roots of Criminal Procedure in the Philippines,
Columbia Journal of Asian Law, Vol. 11 (1997).
Part Eleven: The USA and Colonial Natural Resource Laws
-Lynch, Colonial Legacies: Chapter Thirteen: Invisible Peoples and the
Public Domain Bureaucracy; Chapter Fourteen: The Allocation of Tenurial
Rights and the Public Land and Forests Acts; Chapter Fifteen: Recasting the
Private Domain; Chapter Sixteen: A Hidden Agenda. Earlier draft in the UP
Law Journal, Vol. 63, No. 3, pp. 249-320 (1988).
-Escalante, Chapter 4: The Purchase of the Friar Lands, Friar Lands, pp. 93117.
Part Twelve: Sojourn to Political Independence
-Philippine Assembly, 1907-1916. National Historical Commission of the
Philippines:
http://www.nhi.gov.ph/index2.php?option=com-content&do-pdf=1&id=14.
-The Philippine Autonomy (Jones Law) Act of 1916. Establishment of all
Filipino bicameral legislature; end of Philippine Commission. See
http://www.chanrobles.com/joneslaw.htm.
See also http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Philippine-Autonomy-Act.
-Hare-Haws-Cutting Act of 1933 (rejected by Philippine Senate). See
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/255210/Hare-Hawes-Cutting-Act.
-Tydings-McDuffie (Philippine Commonwealth and Independence) Act of 1934.
See http://chanrobles.com/tydingsmcduffiesact.htm.
See
also
http://www.britanica.com/EBchecked/topic/611449/TydingsMcDuffie-Act.
-Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935.
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Revised Outline for Philippine Legal History/UP College of Law/August 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_Repatriation_Act_of_1935.
Part Thirteen: Addressing Agrarian Reform and Chronic Social
Unrest
-Escalante, Friar Lands Chapter 5: The Travesty of the Land to the Tiller
Program, pp. 124-157; Chapter 6: Interest Groups Behind the Friar Land
Policy, pp. 158-188.
-Ambeth Ocampo, Taft and the friar lands, Philippine Daily Inquirer,
January
10,
2008
http://archive.inquirer.net/view.php?
db=1&story_id+111614.
-James Putzel, A Captive Land: The politics of agrarian reform in the
Philippines, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Chapter 3: The US and agrarian
reform in post-war Asia and the Philippines, pp. 67-112; Chapter 5: The
anti-Marcos movement and agrarian reform, pp. 167-192; Chapter 10:
Implementing CARP: contending positions within the state, pp. 309-363
(1992).
-Sukarno D. Tanggol, Regional Autonomy, Federalism and the Bangsa Moro
Issue. Research support provided by the Institute of Federalism, University of
Fribourg, Switzerland (2010).
Part Fourteen: Colonial and International Trade/Industrialization
-Larkin, Sugar Chapter Five: Centrals, 1920-1934, pp. 148-200.
-Shalom, S. Philippine Acceptance of the Bell Trade Act of 1946: A Study of
Manipulative Democracy, Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 49, No. 3 (1980), pp.
499-517. http://www.jstor.org?stable?3638567?seq=1.
-Johnathan Reyes, Overdue Philippine Independence (circa 2006).
http://www.tcnj.edu/~reyes9/Essay.htm.
Conclusion
-Howie Severino, Bonafacio for (first) president.
http://blogs.gmanews.tv/sidetrip/blog/?/archives/301-Bonafacio-for-firstpresident.html (2007).
-Ambeth Ocampo, The house where Mabini died, Philippine Daily Inquirer
July 23, 2008
http://archive.inquirer.net/view/php?db=1&story-id=150089.
Election Fraud at the Tejeros Convention, Philippine Daily Inquirer May 11,
2007
http://archive.inquirer.net/view/php?db=1&story-id=65258.
First Case of dagdag-bawas? Philippine Daily Inquirer May 11, 2007
http://archive.inquirer.net/view/php?db=1&story-id=66147.
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Revised Outline for Philippine Legal History/UP College of Law/August 2010

-Alixander Escote, Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, the father of the Philippine

Revolution and Philippine Democracy, was executed by firing squad on
May
10,
1897.
Who
ordered
the
execution?
http://quazen.com/reference/biography/andres-bonifacio-the-betrayal-of-ahero (2008). Read comments.
-Sobriety for the Philippines: Sober, wise, objective student of Philippine and
World
History
http://forthephilippines.blogspot.com/2008/11/andres-antcolonial-national-hero-of.html (2008). Read comments.
-Priscelina Patajo-Legasto, ed. Philippine Studies: Have We Gone Beyond St.
Louis? Quezon City: University of Philippine Press (2008). Patajo-Legasto,
Introduction, pp. ixxiii; Bienvenido Lumbera, Splintering Identity: Modes
of Filipino Resistance Under Colonial Repression, pp. 88-97; Caroline Hau,
Of Strongmen and the State, pp. 391-403; Isagani R. Cruz, A Nation
Searching for a Language Finds a Language Searching for a Name, pp. 475480; Jeffery Cabuaso, Another World is Possible: Cultural Studies and
Critical
Filipino
Resistance,
pp.
650-664;
Rolando
Tolentino,
Dogeating/Dogeaters: Abjection in Philippine Colonial and Neo-Colonial
Discourse, pp. 665-682.
--James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant
Resistance, New Haven: Yale University Press (1985): Chapter 5, History
according to Winners and Losers, pp. 138-183.
-Lynch, Colonial Legacies: Introduction pp. 1-47.
Final Exam