Is the Philippines a common law jurisdiction or a civil law jurisdiction?

Answer 1

The Philippine legal system is a mixture (a hybrid) of both the civil law and common law systems although some authorities would insist that it is predominantly civil law.

Its civil law elements were derived primarily from Spanish law which were transplanted into Philippine soil during the Spanish colonization of the Islands; while its common law elements come from Anglo-American law brought by the United States during its 46 year rule of the country.

Most of the present system's civil law elements can be found in the New Civil Code of the Philippines, the Revised Penal Code, as well as in the various provisions of the Rules of Court which also descended from the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure under Spanish law.

The common law elements on the other hand can be found in areas such as the Philippine Constitution, the Rules of Court, Corporation Code, the Negotiable Instruments Law and even in the present Civil Code on the provisions relating to estoppel which are of common law origin. Perhaps the most obvious manifestation of common law in the legal system of the Philippines is the doctrine of Stare Decisis, a doctrine of law that commands courts to abide by rules and principles laid down by previous decisions or rulings of the Supreme Court. Other examples of common law concepts found in the Philippine legal system are the concepts of laches, equity, and habeas corpus which have been formulated under the common law.

But unlike traditionally common law countries, however, courts in the Philippines cannot make law (a characteristic which is very civil law in nature) and the Supreme Court en banc can abandon principles laid down in previous rulings which, in its own evaluation, no longer apply to present circumstances or to facts brought before it.