Professional Documents
Culture Documents
December 2, 1940
The case of Calalang vs Williams is known for the elegant exposition of the
definition of social justice. In this case, Justice Laurel defined social justice
as “neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy” but
humanization of laws and equalization of social and economic forces by the
State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at
least be approximated.
As I browse through the entire case, I found out that there is more to this
case than the definition of social justice. In fact, another important issue
raised here is whether there was a valid delegation of power by the National
Assembly to the Director of Public Works. Let us begin with the facts of the
case.
Facts:
Issues:
Ruling:
The delegated power, if at all, therefore, is not the determination of what the
law shall be, but merely the ascertainment of the facts and circumstances
upon which the application of said law is to be predicated.