PRELIMINARY TITLE

CHAPTER I
EFFECT AND APPLICATION OF LAWS

Article 1. This Act shall be known as the "Civil Code of the Philippines." (n)
Art. 2. Laws shall take effect after fifteen days following the completion of their publication
in the Official Gazette, unless it is otherwise provided. This Code shall take effect one year
after such publication. (1a)
Art. 3. Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith. (2)
Art. 4. Laws shall have no retroactive effect, unless the contrary is provided. (3)
Art. 5. Acts executed against the provisions of mandatory or prohibitory laws shall be void,
except when the law itself authorizes their validity. (4a)
Art. 6. Rights may be waived, unless the waiver is contrary to law, public order, public
policy, morals, or good customs, or prejudicial to a third person with a right recognized by
law. (4a)
Art. 7. Laws are repealed only by subsequent ones, and their violation or non-observance
shall not be excused by disuse, or custom or practice to the contrary.
When the courts declared a law to be inconsistent with the Constitution, the former shall be
void and the latter shall govern.
Administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations shall be valid only when they are
not contrary to the laws or the Constitution. (5a)
Art. 8. Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form a
part of the legal system of the Philippines. (n)
Art. 9. No judge or court shall decline to render judgment by reason of the silence,
obscurity or insufficiency of the laws. (6)
Art. 10. In case of doubt in the interpretation or application of laws, it is presumed that the
lawmaking body intended right and justice to prevail. (n)
Art. 11. Customs which are contrary to law, public order or public policy shall not be
countenanced. (n)
Art. 12. A custom must be proved as a fact, according to the rules of evidence. (n)
Art. 13. When the laws speak of years, months, days or nights, it shall be understood that
years are of three hundred sixty-five days each; months, of thirty days; days, of twentyfour hours; and nights from sunset to sunrise.
If months are designated by their name, they shall be computed by the number of days
which they respectively have.
In computing a period, the first day shall be excluded, and the last day included. (7a)
Art. 14. Penal laws and those of public security and safety shall be obligatory upon all who
live or sojourn in the Philippine territory, subject to the principles of public international
law and to treaty stipulations. (8a)
Art. 15. Laws relating to family rights and duties, or to the status, condition and legal
capacity of persons are binding upon citizens of the Philippines, even though living
abroad. (9a)
Art. 16. Real property as well as personal property is subject to the law of the country
where it is stipulated.

However, intestate and testamentary successions, both with respect to the order of
succession and to the amount of successional rights and to the intrinsic validity of
testamentary provisions, shall be regulated by the national law of the person whose
succession is under consideration, whatever may be the nature of the property and
regardless of the country wherein said property may be found. (10a)
Art. 17. The forms and solemnities of contracts, wills, and other public instruments shall be
governed by the laws of the country in which they are executed.
When the acts referred to are executed before the diplomatic or consular officials of the
Republic of the Philippines in a foreign country, the solemnities established by Philippine
laws shall be observed in their execution.
Prohibitive laws concerning persons, their acts or property, and those which have, for their
object, public order, public policy and good customs shall not be rendered ineffective by
laws or judgments promulgated, or by determinations or conventions agreed upon in a
foreign country. (11a)
Art. 18. In matters which are governed by the Code of Commerce and special laws, their
deficiency
shall
be
supplied
by
the
provisions
of
this
Code. (16a)

CHAPTER 2
HUMAN RELATIONS (n)
Art. 19. Every person must, in the exercise of his rights and in the performance of his
duties, act with justice, give everyone his due, and observe honesty and good faith.
Art. 20. Every person who, contrary to law, wilfully or negligently causes damage to
another, shall indemnify the latter for the same.
Art. 21. Any person who wilfully causes loss or injury to another in a manner that is
contrary to morals, good customs or public policy shall compensate the latter for the
damage.
Art. 22. Every person who through an act of performance by another, or any other means,
acquires or comes into possession of something at the expense of the latter without just or
legal ground, shall return the same to him.
Art. 23. Even when an act or event causing damage to another's property was not due to
the fault or negligence of the defendant, the latter shall be liable for indemnity if through
the act or event he was benefited.
Art. 24. In all contractual, property or other relations, when one of the parties is at a
disadvantage on account of his moral dependence, ignorance, indigence, mental weakness,
tender age or other handicap, the courts must be vigilant for his protection.
Art. 25. Thoughtless extravagance in expenses for pleasure or display during a period of
acute public want or emergency may be stopped by order of the courts at the instance of
any government or private charitable institution.
Art. 26. Every person shall respect the dignity, personality, privacy and peace of mind of his
neighbors and other persons. The following and similar acts, though they may not
constitute a criminal offense, shall produce a cause of action for damages, prevention and
other relief:
(1) Prying into the privacy of another's residence:
(2) Meddling with or disturbing the private life or family relations of another;
(3) Intriguing to cause another to be alienated from his friends;
(4) Vexing or humiliating another on account of his religious beliefs, lowly station in
life, place of birth, physical defect, or other personal condition.
Art. 27. Any person suffering material or moral loss because a public servant or employee
refuses or neglects, without just cause, to perform his official duty may file an action for

damages and other relief against he latter, without prejudice to any disciplinary
administrative action that may be taken.
Art. 28. Unfair competition in agricultural, commercial or industrial enterprises or in labor
through the use of force, intimidation, deceit, machination or any other unjust, oppressive
or highhanded method shall give rise to a right of action by the person who thereby suffers
damage.
Art. 29. When the accused in a criminal prosecution is acquitted on the ground that his guilt
has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt, a civil action for damages for the same act
or omission may be instituted. Such action requires only a preponderance of evidence.
Upon motion of the defendant, the court may require the plaintiff to file a bond to answer
for damages in case the complaint should be found to be malicious.
If in a criminal case the judgment of acquittal is based upon reasonable doubt, the court
shall so declare. In the absence of any declaration to that effect, it may be inferred from the
text of the decision whether or not the acquittal is due to that ground.
Art. 30. When a separate civil action is brought to demand civil liability arising from a
criminal offense, and no criminal proceedings are instituted during the pendency of the civil
case, a preponderance of evidence shall likewise be sufficient to prove the act complained
of.
Art. 31. When the civil action is based on an obligation not arising from the act or omission
complained of as a felony, such civil action may proceed independently of the criminal
proceedings and regardless of the result of the latter.
Art. 32. Any public officer or employee, or any private individual, who directly or indirectly
obstructs, defeats, violates or in any manner impedes or impairs any of the following rights
and liberties of another person shall be liable to the latter for damages:
(1) Freedom of religion;
(2) Freedom of speech;
(3) Freedom to write for the press or to maintain a periodical publication;
(4) Freedom from arbitrary or illegal detention;
(5) Freedom of suffrage;
(6) The right against deprivation of property without due process of law;
(7) The right to a just compensation when private property is taken for public use;
(8) The right to the equal protection of the laws;
(9) The right to be secure in one's person, house, papers, and effects against
unreasonable searches and seizures;
(10) The liberty of abode and of changing the same;
(11) The privacy of communication and correspondence;
(12) The right to become a member of associations or societies for purposes not
contrary to law;
(13) The right to take part in a peaceable assembly to petition the government for
redress of grievances;
(14) The right to be free from involuntary servitude in any form;
(15) The right of the accused against excessive bail;
(16) The right of the accused to be heard by himself and counsel, to be informed of
the nature and cause of the accusation against him, to have a speedy and public

trial, to meet the witnesses face to face, and to have compulsory process to secure
the attendance of witness in his behalf;
(17) Freedom from being compelled to be a witness against one's self, or from
being forced to confess guilt, or from being induced by a promise of immunity or
reward to make such confession, except when the person confessing becomes a
State witness;
(18) Freedom from excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment, unless the
same is imposed or inflicted in accordance with a statute which has not been
judicially declared unconstitutional; and
(19) Freedom of access to the courts.
In any of the cases referred to in this article, whether or not the defendant's act or
omission constitutes a criminal offense, the aggrieved party has a right to commence an
entirely separate and distinct civil action for damages, and for other relief. Such civil action
shall proceed independently of any criminal prosecution (if the latter be instituted), and
mat be proved by a preponderance of evidence.
The indemnity shall include moral damages. Exemplary damages may also be adjudicated.
The responsibility herein set forth is not demandable from a judge unless his act or
omission constitutes a violation of the Penal Code or other penal statute.
Art. 33. In cases of defamation, fraud, and physical injuries a civil action for damages,
entirely separate and distinct from the criminal action, may be brought by the injured party.
Such civil action shall proceed independently of the criminal prosecution, and shall require
only a preponderance of evidence.
Art. 34. When a member of a city or municipal police force refuses or fails to render aid or
protection to any person in case of danger to life or property, such peace officer shall be
primarily liable for damages, and the city or municipality shall be subsidiarily responsible
therefor. The civil action herein recognized shall be independent of any criminal
proceedings, and a preponderance of evidence shall suffice to support such action.
Art. 35. When a person, claiming to be injured by a criminal offense, charges another with
the same, for which no independent civil action is granted in this Code or any special law,
but the justice of the peace finds no reasonable grounds to believe that a crime has been
committed, or the prosecuting attorney refuses or fails to institute criminal proceedings,
the complaint may bring a civil action for damages against the alleged offender. Such civil
action may be supported by a preponderance of evidence. Upon the defendant's motion,
the court may require the plaintiff to file a bond to indemnify the defendant in case the
complaint should be found to be malicious.
If during the pendency of the civil action, an information should be presented by the
prosecuting attorney, the civil action shall be suspended until the termination of the
criminal proceedings.
Art. 36. Pre-judicial questions which must be decided before any criminal prosecution may
be instituted or may proceed, shall be governed by rules of court which the Supreme Court
shall promulgate and which shall not be in conflict with the provisions of this Code.

Civil law (or civilian law) is a legal system originating in Western Europe, intellectualized within the
framework of late Roman law, and whose most prevalent feature is that its core principles
are codified into a referable system which serves as the primary source of law. This can be contrasted
with common law systems whose intellectual framework comes from judge-made decisional law which
givesprecedential authority to prior court decisions on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts
differently on different occasions (doctrine of judicial precedent).[1][2]

Historically, civil law is the group of legal ideas and systems ultimately derived from the Code of Justinian,
but heavily overlaid byGermanic, canon-law, feudal, and local practices,[3] as well as doctrinal strains such
as natural law, codification, and legislative positivism.
Conceptually, civil law proceeds from abstractions, formulates general principles, and distinguishes
substantive rules from procedural rules. [4] It holds case law to be secondary and subordinate to statutory
law, and the court system is usually inquisitorial, unbound by precedent, and composed of speciallytrained, functionary judicial officers with limited authority to interpret law. Jury trials are not used, although
in some cases, benches may be sat by a mixed panel of lay magistrates and career judges.

Overview[edit]
The purpose of codification is to provide all citizens with manners and written collection of the laws which
apply to them and which judges must follow. It is the most widespread system of law in the world, in force
in various forms in about 150 countries, [5] and draws heavily from Roman law, arguably the most intricate
known legal system dating from before the modern era. Colonial expansion spread the civil law which has
been received in much of Latin America and parts of Asia and Africa.[6]
Where codes exist, the primary source of law is the law code, which is a systematic collection of
interrelated articles,[7] arranged by subject matter in some pre-specified order,[8] and that explain the
principles of law, rights and entitlements, and how basic legal mechanisms work. Law codes are usually
created by a legislature's enactment of a new statute that embodies all the old statutes relating to the
subject and including changes necessitated by court decisions. In some cases, the change results in a
new statutory concept. Other major legal systems in the world include common law, Halakha, canon law,
and Islamic law.
Civilian countries can be divided into:

those where civil law in some form is still living law but there has been no attempt to create a civil
code: Andorra and San Marino

those with uncodified mixed systems in which civil law is an academic source of authority but
common
law
is
also
influential: Scotland and Roman-Dutch
Africa, Zambia,Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Guyana)

law countries

(South

those with codified mixed systems in which civil law is the background law but has its public law
heavily influenced by common law: Louisiana, Quebec, Puerto Rico, Philippines

those

with

comprehensive

codes

that

exceed

single

civil

code,

such

as France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Mexico: it is this last category that is normally regarded as
typical of civil law systems, and is discussed in the rest of this article.
The Scandinavian systems are of a hybrid character since their background law is a mix of civil law and
Scandinavian customary law and have been partially codified. Likewise, the laws of theChannel
Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark) are hybrids which mix Norman customary law and French civil
law.
A prominent example of a civil-law code would be the Napoleonic Code (1804), named after French
emperor Napoleon. The Code comprises three components: the law of persons, property law, and
commercial law. Rather than a compendium of statutes or catalog of caselaw, the Code sets out general
principles as rules of law.[7]
Unlike common law systems, civil law jurisdictions deal with case law apart from any precedence value.
Civil law courts generally decide cases using statutory law on a case-by-case basis, without reference to
other (or even superior) judicial decisions. [9] In actual practice, an increasing degree of precedence is
creeping into civil law jurisprudence, and is generally seen in many nations' highest courts. [9] While the
typical French-speaking supreme court decision is short, concise and devoid of explanation or
justification, in Germanic Europe, the supreme courts can and do tend to write more verbose opinions
supported by legal reasoning.[9] A line of similar case decisions, while not precedent per se,
constitute jurisprudence constante.[9] While civil law jurisdictions place little reliance on court decisions,

they tend to generate a phenomenal number of reported legal opinions.[9] However, this tends to be
uncontrolled, since there is no statutory requirement that any case be reported or published in a law
report, except for the councils of state and constitutional courts. [9] Except for the highest courts, all
publication of legal opinions are unofficial or commercial. [10]
Civil law is sometimes referred to as neo-Roman law, Romano-Germanic law or Continental law. The
expression civil law is a translation of Latin jus civile, or citizens law, which was the late imperial term
for its legal system, as opposed to the laws governing conquered peoples (jus gentium); hence, the
Justinian code's title Corpus Juris Civilis. Civilian lawyers, however, traditionally refer to their system in a
broad sense as jus commune, literally "common law", meaning the general principles of law as opposed
to laws peculiar to particular areas. (The use of "common law" for the Anglo-Saxon systems may or may
not be influenced by this usage.)

History
The civil law takes as its major inspiration classical Roman law (c. AD 1250), and in
particular Justinian law (6th century AD), and further expounding and developments in the late Middle
Agesunder the influence of canon law.[11] The Justinian Code's doctrines provided a sophisticated model
for contracts, rules of procedure, family law, wills, and a strong monarchical constitutional system.
[12]
Roman law was received differently in different countries. In some it went into force wholesale by
legislative act, i.e., it became positive law, whereas in others it was diffused into society by increasingly
influential legal experts and scholars.
Roman law continued without interruption in the Byzantine Empire until its final fall in the 15th century.
However, subject as it was to multiple incursions and occupations by Western European powers in the
late medieval period, its laws became widely available in the West. It was first received into the Holy
Roman Empire partly because it was considered imperial law, and it spread in Europe mainly because its
students were the only trained lawyers. It became the basis of Scots law, though partly rivaled by
received feudal Norman law. In England, it was taught academically at Oxford and Cambridge, but
underlay only probate and matrimonial law insofar as both were inherited from canon law, and maritime
law, adapted from the law merchant through the Bordeaux trade.
Consequently, neither of the two waves of Romanism completely dominated in Europe. Roman law was a
secondary source that was applied only when local customs and laws were found lacking on a certain
subject. However, after a time, even local law came to be interpreted and evaluated primarily on the basis
of Roman law (it being a common European legal tradition of sorts), thereby in turn influencing the main
source of law. Eventually, the works of civilian glossators and commentators led to the development of a
common body of law and writing about law, a common legal language, and a common method of teaching
and scholarship, all termed the jus commune, or law common to Europe, which consolidated canon law
and Roman law, and to some extent, feudal law.

Codification
An important common characteristic of civil law, aside from its origins in Roman law, is the comprehensive
codification of received Roman law, i.e., its inclusion in civil codes. The earliestcodification known is
the Code of Hammurabi, written in ancient Babylon during the 18th century BC. However, this, and many
of the codes that followed, were mainly lists of civil and criminal wrongs and their punishments.
Codification of the type typical of modern civilian systems did not first appear until the Justinian Code.
Germanic codes appeared over the 6th and 7th centuries to clearly delineate the law in force for
Germanic privileged classes versus their Roman subjects and regulate those laws according to folk-right.
Under feudal law, a number of private custumals were compiled, first under the Norman empire (Trs
ancien coutumier, 12001245), then elsewhere, to record the manorial and later regional customs,
court decisions, and the legal principles underpinning them. Custumals were commissioned by lords who
presided as lay judges over manorial courts in order to inform themselves about the court process. The
use of custumals from influential towns soon became commonplace over large areas. In keeping with this,
certain monarchs consolidated their kingdoms by attempting to compile custumals that would serve as the
law of the land for their realms, as when Charles VII of France commissioned in 1454 an official custumal
of Crown law. Two prominent examples include the Coutume de Paris (written 1510; revised 1580), which
served as the basis for the Napoleonic Code, and the Sachsenspiegel (c. 1220) of the bishoprics
of Magdeburg andHalberstadt which was used in northern Germany, Poland, and the Low Countries.

The concept of codification was further developed during the 17th and 18th centuries AD, as an
expression of both natural law and the ideas of the Enlightenment. The political ideal of that era was
expressed by the concepts of democracy, protection of property and the rule of law. That ideal required
the creation of certainty of law, through the recording of law and through its uniformity. So, the
aforementioned mix of Roman law and customary and local law ceased to exist, and the road opened for
law codification, which could contribute to the aims of the above mentioned political ideal.
Another reason that contributed to codification was that the notion of the nation-state required the
recording of the law that would be applicable to that state.
Certainly, there was also a reaction to law codification. The proponents of codification regarded it as
conducive to certainty, unity and systematic recording of the law; whereas its opponents claimed that
codification would result in the ossification of the law.
In the end, despite whatever resistance to codification, the codification of European private laws moved
forward. Codifications were completed by Denmark (1687), Sweden (1734), Prussia
(1794),France (1804), and Austria (1811). The French codes were imported into areas conquered by
Emperor Napoleon and later adopted with modifications in Poland (Duchy of Warsaw/Congress Poland;
Kodeks cywilny 1806/1825), Louisiana (1807), Canton of Vaud (Switzerland; 1819),
the Netherlands (1838), Italy and Romania (1865), Portugal (1867), Spain (1888), Germany (1900),
andSwitzerland (1912). These codifications were in turn imported into colonies at one time or another by
most of these countries. The Swiss version was adopted in Brazil (1916) and Turkey (1926).
In the United States, U.S. states began codification with New York's "Field Code" (1850), followed
by California's Codes (1872), and the federal Revised Statutes (1874) and the current United States
Code (1926).
Because Germany was a rising power in the late 19th century and its legal system was well organized,
when many Asian nations were developing, the German Civil Code became the basis for the legal
systems of Japan and South Korea. In China, the German Civil Code was introduced in the later years of
the Qing Dynasty and formed the basis of the law of the Republic of China, which remains in force
in Taiwan.
Some authors consider civil law to have served as the foundation for socialist law used
in communist countries, which in this view would basically be civil law with the addition of MarxistLeninist
ideas. Even if this is so, civil law was generally the legal system in place before the rise of socialist law,
and some Eastern European countries reverted to the pre-Socialist civil law following the fall of socialism,
while others continued using their socialist legal systems.
Several civil-law mechanisms seem to have been borrowed from medieval Islamic Sharia and fiqh. For
example,
the
Islamic hawala (hundi)
underlies
the avallo of Italian law
and
[13]
the aval of Frenchand Spanish law.

The term civil law comes from English legal scholarship and is used in English-speaking countries to lump
together all legal systems of the jus commune tradition. However, legal comparativists and economists
promoting the legal origins theory prefer to subdivide civil law jurisdictions into four distinct groups:

Napoleonic: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Quebec (Canada), Louisiana (U.S.), Italy, Romania,
the Netherlands, Spain, and their former colonies;

Germanistic: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, Estonia, Roman-Dutch, Czech

Republic, Lithuania, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia,Slovakia, Bosnia
Herzegovina, Greece, Brazil, Portugal, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan (Republic
and Thailand;

of

and
China)

Scandinavian: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

Chinese (except Hong Kong and Macau) is a mixture of civil law and socialist law. Hong Kong,
although part of China, uses common law. The Basic Law of Hong Kong ensures the use and status
of common law in Hong Kong. Macau has continued to have a Portuguese legal system in place.

Portugal, Brazil, the Netherlands and Italy have shifted from Napoleonic to Germanistic influence, as their
19th century civil codes were close to the Napoleonic Code, whereas their 20th-century civil codes are
much closer to the German Civil Code. More recently, Brazil's 2002 Civil Code drew heavily from the
Italian Civil Code in its unification of private law; legal culture and academic law now more closely follow
the Germanistic tradition. The other law in these countries is often said to be of a hybrid nature.
Some systems of civil law do not fit neatly into this typology, however. The Polish law developed as a
mixture of French and German civil law in the 19th century. After the reunification of Poland in 1918, five
legal systems (French Napoleonic Code from the Duchy of Warsaw, German BGB from Western Poland,
Austrian ABGB from Southern Poland, Russian law from Eastern Poland, and Hungarian law
from Spisz andOrawa) were merged into one. Similarly, Dutch law, while originally codified in the
Napoleonic tradition, has been heavily altered under influence from the Dutch native tradition of RomanDutch law (still in effect in its former colonies). Scotland's civil law tradition borrowed heavily from RomanDutch law. Swiss law is categorized as Germanistic, but it has been heavily influenced by the Napoleonic
tradition, with some indigenous elements added in as well.
Louisiana private law is primarily a Napoleonic system. Louisiana is the only U.S. state partially based
on French and Spanish codes and ultimately Roman law, as opposed to English common law.[17] In
Louisiana, private law was codified into the Louisiana Civil Code. Current Louisiana law has converged
considerably with American law, especially in its public law, judicial system, and adoption of the Uniform
Commercial Code (except for Article 2) and certain legal devices of American common law. [18] In fact, any
innovation, whether private or public, has been decidedly common law in origin. Likewise, Quebec law,
whose private law is similarly of French civilian origin, has developed along the same lines, having
adapted in the same way as Louisiana to the public law and judicial system of Canadian common law. By
contrast, Quebec private law has innovated mainly from civilian sources. To a lesser extent, other states
formerly part of the Spanish Empire, such as Texas and California, have also retained aspects of Spanish
Civil law into their legal system, for example community property. The legal system of Puerto
Rico exhibits the same tendencies that of Louisiana has shown: the application of a civil code whose
interpretations are reliant on both the Civil and Common Law systems. Because Puerto Rico's Civil Code
is based on the Spanish Civil Code of 1889, available jurisprudence has tended to rely on Common Law
innovations due to the code's age and in many cases, obsolete nature.
Several Islamic countries have civil law systems that contain elements of Islamic law.[19] As an example,
the Egyptian Civil Code of 1810 that developed in the early 19th centurywhich remains in force in Egypt
is the basis for the civil law in many countries of the Arab world where the civil law is used is based on
the Napoleonic Code, but its primary author Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuriattempted to integrate principles
and features of Islamic law in deference to the unique circumstances of Egyptian society.

History of the Civil Code[edit]

The Civil Code is strongly influenced by the Spanish Civil Code, which was first enforced in 1889 within
the Philippines, then a colony of Spain. The Spanish Civil Code remained in effect even during
the American colonization of the Philippines. However, by 1940, the Commonwealth
Government of President Manuel Quezon had created a Commission to create a new Civil Code. The
Commission was initially headed by Chief Justice Ramon Avancea. However, the work of the
Commission was interrupted by the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, and its records were destroyed
during the Battle of Manila in 1945.
In 1947, President Manuel Roxas created a new Code Commission, this time headed by the
former Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law Jorge Bocobo. Among the members who
sat on the new Commission were future Supreme Court Associate Justice Francisco R. Capistrano, and
future Vice-President Arturo Tolentino. The Commission completed the final draft of the new Civil Code by
December 1947, and this was submitted to Congress, which enacted it into law through Republic Act No.
386. The Civil Code took effect in 1950.[1]
Due to its extensive coverage and impact, the Civil Code is among the most widely studied and
commented upon laws in the Philippines. Several legal luminaries developed reputations as experts on
the Civil Code and consequently enhanced their reputations in the field of Philippine law. These
include Tolentino, Supreme Court Associate Justices J. B. L. Reyes, Flerida Ruth P. Romero, and Jose
Vitug.

Features of the Civil Code[edit]

The Civil Code is divided into 5 books, with a specific book covering persons and family relations;
property; succession; obligations and contracts; and special contracts. Special contracts encompasses
several classes of contracts as sales, agency, and partnership. The law on torts and damages is found in
Book V, although developments in tort and damages law have been guided less by the Code than by
judicial precedents.
The influence of the Spanish Civil Code is most evident in the books on property, succession
and obligations and contracts. The law on succession, for example, retains such concepts indigenous
to Spain such as the rule on legitimes and reserva troncal. On the other hand, many of the provisions on
special contracts, particularly on sales, are derived from American common law, reflecting the influence of
American rule over the Philippines and the influx of commercial relations involving Americans during that
time.
The great mass of disputes between private persons over civil and property relations are resolved by
application of the provisions of the Civil Code. With over 2000 specific provisions, the Civil Code attempts
to anticipate all possible questions arising from civil and property relations and prescribe a definitive
solution for these problems. Understandably, the Civil Code itself is unable to provide a definite answer
for all emerging problems, and reliance has been placed by the courts not only on the provisions of the
Code, but also on the interpretations of the Code as laid down by theSupreme Court. Notably, the Civil
Code itself recognizes that "[j]udicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall

form a part of the legal system of the Philippines" (Article 8, Civil Code), a recognition of the eminent role
now played by judicial precedents in Philippine law.

The Family Code of 1987

In 1987, President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino enacted into law The Family Code of 1987, which was
intended to supplant Book I of the Civil Code concerning persons and family relations. Work on the Family
Code had begun as early as 1979, and it had been drafted by two successive committees, the first
chaired by future Supreme Court Justice Flerida Ruth Romero, and the second chaired by former
Supreme Court Justice J. B. L. Reyes. The need was seen to amend the Civil Code through the Family
Code in order to, among others, change certain provisions implanted from foreign sources which had
proved unsuitable to Filipino culture; and to attune to contemporary developments and trends. [2]
The Family Code covers fields of significant public interest, especially the law on marriage. The definition
and requisites for marriage, as well as the grounds for its annulment, are found in the Family Code. Also
in the Family Code is the law on conjugal property relations, the rules on establishing filiation, and the
governing provisions on support, parental authority, and adoption.