Law has been said to be a product of social life, a creation of human nature and a response to the needs of the people. It is generally defined as a rule of conduct, just and obligatory in nature, promulgated by a legitimate authority and of common observance and mutual benefit. In this light, it must be noted that laws rest upon the concepts of order, co-existence, and liberty, and are made for the common good of all people. Thus, by placing restrictions on individual liberty, harmony can be maintained within the social group.
Article 3 of the New Civil Code of the Philippines clearly states: Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith. Knowledge of the law is therefore important, for someone to know how the laws apply to daily life, what the proper legal procedures are, and what mistakes, violations or liabilities to avoid.
Filipiniana.net is making available full texts of Philippine laws in one of its flagship projects: Philippine Legal Database. Its purpose is to share knowledge and information about the Philippine legal system, to be accessible online every day of the week.
Philippine Legal Database, an online digital law library, begins by providing the full text of “The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines” -- the basic and fundamental law of the land. It also contains the other constitutions promulgated at different stages of our history: the Constitution of Biac-na-Bato (1897), Malolos Constitution (1899), Constitution of the Philippines (1935), Constitution of the Second Philippine Republic (1943), the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines (1973), and the Provisional “Freedom” Constitution (1986).
In order to provide a comprehensive knowledge database of the Philippine legal system, Philippine Legal Database will provide full texts of existing laws of the Republic of the Philippines, organized according to the bar examination subjects: Political and Public International Law ; Labor and Social Legislation; Civil Law; Criminal Law; Mercantile Law; Taxation; Remedial Law; and Legal and Judicial Ethics. In connection with this, Supreme Court decisions and resolutions, with special attention to landmark cases, will also be part of this project, as judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form a part of the legal system of the Philippines. (Art. 8, New Civil Code).
As a rule in statutory construction, laws should be construed or interpreted in the light of its origins, or through the intentions of the framers or authors of the law. Thus, aside from the laws already abovementioned, Philippine Legal Database will also provide full texts of early Spanish codes and laws that were made effective or extended in the Philippines during the Spanish colonization, as these laws are the basis of, or were incorporated into, the present laws of the country. Such as Codigo Penal (the Penal Code, revised for the Philippines, in 1887), Siete Partidas, the Code of Commerce of 1885, Ley Provisional, Ley de Enjuciamiento Criminal of 1872 (Code of Criminal Procedure), Civil Code of 1889 except titles IV and XII of Book I), Ley Hipotecaria of 1889, revised in 1893, Railways Laws of 1875 and 1877, Ley de Aguas, Leyes de Toro, Leyes de Indias, Novsima Recopilacin, Ley de Minas, Notarial Law of 1862 with modifications in 1889, Ley de Propiedad Intelectual, and Cedulario de Manila.
Philippine organic laws, such as the Treaty of Paris (1898), McKinley’s Instructions to the Second Philippine Commission (1900), Philippine Bill of 1902, Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916, and the Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934), will also be available in the site.
In addition, Philippine Legal Database will also upload treaties and international agreements entered into by the Philippine government, among those included are the treaties of friendship entered in by the Philippines with different countries such as Spain, France, Italy, Ecuador and China; extradition treaties entered into by the Philippines; and military agreements between the Philippines and the United States.
To supplement the above mentioned documents, Philippine legal terms and doctrines as well as legal forms which can be downloaded in English or Filipino are also available in the site.
This Filipiniana.net project is different from other existing online legal libraries, as all documents are provided with executive summaries, subject headings, and are fully indexed and searchable with the granularity of sand.
Philippine Legal Database is poised to be the premier online legal knowledge database of the Philippines.
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"i pick-up the pipe and i smashed him and i ran to the other room."
-- Marivic Genosa, People of the Philippines VS. Marivic Genosa
