Classification of Legal Sources

Primary Authority is the only authority that is binding on the courts.

Classification by Authority

Authority is that which may be cited in support of an action, theory

or hypothesis. Legal of materials primary authority are those that
contain actual law or those that contain law created by government.
Each of the three branches of government: Legislative, Executive
and Judiciary, promulgates laws.

Secondary authority or sources are commentaries or books, treatise,

writings, journal articles that explain, discuss or comment on
primary authorities. Also included in this category are the opinions
of the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission
or circulars of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. These materials are
not binding on courts but they have persuasive effect and/or the
degree of persuasiveness. With regards to commentaries or books,
treatise, writings, journal articles, the reputation or expertise of the
author is a consideration. Some of the authors of good reputation and
considered experts in the field are Chief Justice Ramon C. Aquino
and Justice Carolina Grino Aquino on Revised Penal Code or
Criminal Law, Senator Arturo M. Tolentino on Civil law, Chief
Justice Enrique M. Fernando and Fr. Joaquin Bernas on
Constitutional Law, Prof. Perfecto Fernandez on Labor Law, Vicente
Francisco, Chief Justice Manuel Moran on Remedial Law, and
Justice Vicente Abad Santos and Senator Jovito Salonga on
International Law, etc.

The legislature promulgates statutes, namely:

Classification by Source
Act, Commonwealth Act, Republic Act, Batas Pambansa. Executive
promulgates presidential issuances (Presidential Decrees, Executive
Orders, Memorandum Circular, Administrative Orders,
Proclamations, etc.), rules and regulations through its various
departments, bureaus and agencies. The Judiciary promulgates
judicial doctrines embodied in decisions. We however need to clarify
that the Presidential Decrees or law issued by President Ferdinand E.
Marcos during Martial Law and Executive Orders issued by Aquino
President Corazon C. Aquino before the opening Congress in July
1987 can be classified as legislative acts, there being no legislature
during these two periods.

Primary Authority or sources may be further subdivided into the

following:

Mandatory primary authority is law created by the jurisdiction in

which the law operates like the Philippines;
Persuasive mandatory authority is law created by other jurisdictions
but which have persuasive value to our courts e.g. Spanish and
American laws and jurisprudence. These sources as used specially
when there are no Philippine authorities available or when the
Philippine statute or jurisprudence under interpretation is based on
either the Spanish or American law;

It is in this regard that the collections of law libraries in the

Philippines include United States court reports, Wests national
reporter system, court reports of England and international tribunal,
important reference materials such as the American Jurisprudence,
Corpus Juris Secundum, Words and Phrases and different law
dictionaries. Some of these law libraries subscribe to the Westlaw
and/or LexisNexis. The Supreme Court, University of the
Philippines, University of Santo Tomas and a number of prominent
law libraries also have a Spanish collection where a great number of
our laws originated.

It is important for legal research experts to know the source where

the materials were taken from. One has to determine whether they
came from primary (official) sources or secondary (unofficial
sources). Primary and secondary sources for the sources of law are
found in the Philippine Legal Information Resources and Citations
section - part II - of the 2009 Update.

Primary sources are those published by the issuing agency itself or

the official repository, the Official Gazette. The Official Gazette
online was launched by the Office of the President in July 2010. This
online version is maintained and managed by the Presidential
Communications Development and Strategic Management Office. .
Thus, for Republic Acts and other legislative enactments or statutes,
the primary sources are the Official Gazette published by the
National Printing Office and the Laws and Resolutions published by
Congress. For Supreme Court decisions, the primary sources are the
Philippine Reports, the individually mimeographed Advance
Supreme Court decisions and the Official Gazette. Publication of
Supreme Court decisions in the Official Gazette is selective. The
publication of the Philippine Reports by the National Printing Office
ceased in 1960s. It was only in 1983 when the publication of the
Philippine Reports was revived by then Chief Justice Enrique M.
Fernando who requested then President Ferdinand E. Marcos to take
charge of its publication with special appropriation in the Judiciarys
annual budget. However, when the Supreme Court took over the
printing in 1983, the delay in printing covered more than twenty (20)
years. The last volume printed was volume 126 (June 1967). The
Philippine Reports is up-to-date and almost complete from 1901. The
volumes remain to be printed cover June 1991-December 1994.
Online, the Supreme Court E-Library is complete and updated as
soon as the decisions have been certified by the Chief Justice.

The Secondary Sources are the unofficial sources and generally

referred to as those commercially published or those that are not
published by government agencies or instrumentalities.
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Some of the Secondary sources of statutes are the Vital Legal

Documents, published by the Central Book Supply, contains a
compilation of Presidential Decrees (1973). The second edition
contains Republic Acts. Prof. Sulpicio Guevara published three
books, which contain s the full text of legislative enactments or laws
namely: a). Public Laws Annotated (7 vols.), compilation of all laws
from 1901 to 1935, b). Commonwealth Acts Annotated (3vos.),
compilation of laws from 1935-1945 c). The Laws of the First
Philippine Republic (The Laws of Malolos) 1898-1899. For the
Supreme Court decisions, Supreme Court Reports Annotated
(SCRA), a secondary source, published by the Central Book Supply
is more updated and popular in the legal community than the
Philippine Reports, the primary and official source. The SCRA was
published because of the delay in the printing of the Philippines and
the need of the Philippine legal profession for Supreme Court
decision. Citations in commentaries or books, treatise, writings,
journal articles, pleading and even court decisions show SCRAs
popular acceptance. The general rule is that in the absence of a
primary source, the secondary source may be cited. This was the
primary rationale for the SCRAs popularity. SCRA is now available
online (including tablet and ipad) by subscription.

With the advent of the new information technology, electronic or

digitized sources are popular sources and effective sources of legal
information for the following reasons: a) no complete and updated
legal information available; b) the search engines utilizing the
electronic or digitized method facilitate research, and c) no complete
and update manually published search tools for statute and case law.

These electronic sources started with CD ROMS and now online or

electronic libraries. The popular use of online/electronic libraries was
due to the advent of the ipads, ipods, tablet and notebooks and
internet with wi-fi connection. Online access is either through Open
access or subscription basis. Open access for law is used for both the
government and the private sector. The Chan Robles Law Firm
Library and Arellano Law Foundation Lawphil use open access in
their electronic libraries, which contains the full-text of all sources of
Philippine legal information, case law and statute
law. Chanrobles.com has also in its database the full text of United
States decisions and materials on important legal events such as
Impeachment proceedings, bar examinations. Chan Robles conducts
online bar review program. Official or government online source for
full-text for all legal sources and related materials in the Official
Gazette online, launched in July 2010. It contains the issuances of all
the executive departments, which are found also in the websites of
the different executive departments. They aim (as reflected in their
website) to include the issuances of the legislative and the judiciary.
The Supreme Court E-Library is an electronic library (online and CD
rom for decisions updated quarterly) for all Philippine legal
information, case law and statute law. Access however is limited to
the Justices, judges and court attorneys of the Supreme Court and
law schools (by request) through their law librarians. Decisions and
issuances of the Supreme Court and its Offices and the Appellate
Courts are found in the Judiciary portal.

CD Asia online contains full-text of Supreme Court decisions and

statutes, available on a subscription basis. Subscription may be made
solely for court decisions or statutes or for both.

There are two other sources for electronic full-text decisions of the
Philippine Supreme Court:
1) Fluxfun Larc and Central Books eSCRA . Both can be accessed
online with the use of desktops, laptops, notebooks, and ipads.
Fluxfun Larc is on open access while eSCRA is for subscription.
By using Google search, some of this legal information may be
retrieved.

The established policy is that in case of conflict between the printed

and electronic sources, the printed version coming from the issuing
government agency prevails.

Legal research for statute law in the Philippines benefited

remarkably from the use of the latest technology due to two major
problems:
a) no complete and updated published or printed search tools or law
finders for statute law and
b) no complete compilation of statute law from 1901-present were
available. Problems of the publication of compilations of statute law
or the existence of the full-text of Presidential Decrees was that
brought about to the Supreme Court in the Tanada v. Tuvera, G.R.
No. 63915, April 24, 1985 (220 Phil 422), December 29, 1986 (146
SCRA 446) case was resolved by the use of the latest technology.
The Tanada v. Tuvera, case that was first decided before the
bloodless revolution popularly known as People Power or the EDSA
Revolution and modified in the December 29, 1986 or after the
People Power or the EDSA Revolution resolved the publication
requirement for the effectivity of laws as provided for in Section 2 of
the Civil Code of the Philippines.

Still, with regards to Statute Law in the Philippines, the other

problem is how to classify sources published in the newspapers.
Since 1987, based on the definition of primary and secondary source,
they may be considered as primary sources pursuant to Executive
Order No. 200, s. 1987 that provides that laws become effective
fifteen (15) days after publication in the Official Gazette or in two
newspapers of general circulation. In case of conflict between the
two versions, the version of the Official Gazette holds.

The existence, availability and access to local ordinances issued by

the local governments in the Philippines remains a problem.

In finding the law, our ultimate goal is to locate mandatory primary

authorities, which have bearing on the legal problem at hand. If these
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authorities are scarce or nonexistent, our next alternative is to find

any relevant persuasive mandatory authority. If our search is still
negative, the next alternative might be secondary authorities. There
are however instances where the secondary authorities, more
particularly the commentaries made by experts of the field, take

precedence over the persuasive mandatory authorities. With the

availability of both, using both sources is highly recommended.

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