The question “What is law?

” is deceptively difficult to answer — even

law students and members of the bar may not be able to give a
straightforward reply to this seemingly simple query.

There are many different definitions offered by legal writers,

jurists, and authorities to simply explain what law is, but perhaps the
most accepted definition
of law under the Philippine legal system is the one proffered by the Spanish
jurist Sanchez Roman.

In defining law, Sanchez Roman made a distinction between the two

senses the term law connotes: the general sense and the specific
sense.

In the general sense (derecho), law is defined as the science of

moral laws basedontherationalnat ureofman. These moral laws
govern his free activity for the realization of his individual and social
ends. They are, by their very nature, demandable and reciprocal.

Whe n we speak of law in the general sense, we are referring to the

abstract and moral conception of law. Morality recognizes that
humans, as rational creatures, have free will, and that they have
every right to exercise this free will to achieve
their unique and individual aspirations. This right cannot be infringed
and must be respected by other humans.

In the specific sense ( ley), law is is defined as a ruleofconduct.

These rules of conduct are just and obligatory. They are
promulgated by legitimate author ity
(typically by the Legislature). They are of common observance and benefit.
Law in the specific sense is the common and popular definition of law. It refers to
the rules established by an instrumentality of the State—usually the
Congress— that either direct conduct, prohibit conduct, impose rights
or duties, or repeal or
modify another law. There is a presumption that these rules are just,
and may only be struck down by an instrumentality of the State that
has the power to do so. These rules must be observed by everyone
under Philippine jurisdiction, subject to limitations imposed by the
rules themselves.

Justice
Justice, for many people, refers to fairness. But while justice is
important to almost everyone, it means different things to different
groups.

For instance, social justice is the notion that everyone deserves equal
economic,
political, and social opportunities irrespective of race, gender, or
religion.
Distributive justice refers to the equitable allocation of assets in
society. Environmental justice is the fair treatment of all people
with regard to
environmental burdens and benefits.

Restorative or corrective justice seeks to make whole those who

have suffered unfairly. Retributive justice seeks to punish
wrongdoers objectively and proportionate ly. And procedural justice
refers to implementing legal decisions in accordance with fair and
unbiased processes.
Ethics
The term ethics often describes the i nvestigation and analysis of
moral principles
and dilemmas. Traditionally, philosophers and religious scholars
have studied ethics. More recently, scholars from various disciplines
have entered the field, creating new approaches to the study of
ethics such as behavioral ethics and applied ethics.

The term ethics can also refer to rules or guidelines that establish what
conduct is
right and wrong for individuals and for groups. For example, codes of
conduct express relevant ethical standards for professionals in
many fields, such as medicine, law, journalism, and accounting.

Some p hilosophers make a distinction between ethics and morals.

But many people use the terms ethics and morals interchangeably
when talking about personal beliefs, actions, or principles. For
example, it’s common to say, “My ethics prevent me from cheating.”
It’s also common to use morals in this sentence instead.

So, whether we use the term ethics to refer to personal beliefs, or rules
of conduct, or the study of moral philosophy, ethics provides a
framework for understanding
and interpreting right and wrong in society.

Justice is one of the most important moral values in the spheres of law
and politics.
Legal and political systems that maintain law and order are desirable,
but they
cannot accomplish either unless they also achieve justice.
Philippines Legal System

The Philippine legal system is a mixture of customary usage, Roman

(civil law) and
Anglo-American (common law) systems, and Islamic law. The legal
system is the
result of the immigration of Muslim Malays in the fourteenth century
and the
subsequent colonisation of the islands by Spain and the United
States. The civil
law operates in areas such as family relations, property, succession,
contract and
criminal law while statutes and principles of common law origin are
evident in such
areas as constitutiona l law, procedure, corporations law, taxation,
insurance, labor
relations, banking and currency.

Sources of Law
The main sources of Philippine law are:
• the Constitution - the fundamental and supreme law of the land

• statutes - including Acts of Congress, mu nicipal charters,

municipal legislation, court rules, administrative rules and orders,
legislative rules and presidential issuances.

• treaties and conventions - these have the same force of

authority as statutes.
• judicial decisions - Art 8 of the Civil Code provides that ‘judicial
decisions applying to or interpreting the laws or the Constitution
shall form a part of the legal system of the Phil ippines’ . Only
decisions of its Supreme Court establish jurisprudence and are
binding on all other courts.
To some extent, customary law also forms part of the Filipino legal
system. Art 6,
para 2 of the Constitution provides that ‘the State shall recognize,
respect, and
protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to preserve and
develop their
cultures, traditions and institutions’ .
The primary sources of Muslim law / Shariah are the
Quran, Sunnaqh, Ijma and Qiyas.

1. Constitution
2. Administrative or general orders not contrary to the constitution.

3. Statutes, laws, presidential decrees, executive orders, or batas

pambansa.
4. Jurisprudence and judicial customs.

5. Decisions of foreign courts if applicable.

6. Principles governing analogous cases.
7. Principles of legal hermeneutics.
8. Equity and general principles of law (morals).

The historical school of jurisprudence reveals the belief that

history is the
foundation of the knowledge of the contemporary era. Two jurists who
researched
extensively in this area –Friedrich Carl Von Savigny (1799 – 1861)and
Sir Henry
Maine (1822-1888). We have discussed the jurist Friedrich Carl Von
Savigny (1799 – 1861) in our last article. Now in this article, we will
discuss only Sir Henry Maine and his theory in the historical law school.

The ni neteenth-century evolutionism in legal theory set initially by

Savigny was nurtured with the publication of Ancie nt Law in 1861 by
Sir Henry Maine. Sir Henry Maine sets the set the stage for
anthropologists and sociologists like Durkheim, Morgan, Sorokin,
Zimmerman and Max Weber who reconstructed their typologies
of society on the approach and method of Sir Henry Mai ne. These
varying typologies of society are essentially indicators of historical
growth as to
how the communities evolved.

Sir Henry Maine came to a conclusion through his comparative study

that the
development of law and other social institutions in almost all the
ancient societies
related to Hindu, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Hebrew and Germanic
communities were
more or less the same as a palace is.
Who was Sir Henry Maine?:-
To some extent, customary law also forms part of the Filipino legal
system. Art 6,
Sir Henry Mainewas a British comparative jurist and historian. He is
famous for the thesis outlined in his book Ancient Lawthat law and
society developed ‘from
status to contract.’ He was a Cambridge Apostle. Shortly afterward, he
accepted a tutorship at Trinity Hall. I n 1847, he was appointed a
regius professor of civil law,
and he was called to the bar three years later, he held this chair
till 1854.
Meanwhile, in 1852 he had become one of the readers appointed by
the Inns of Court.
Stages of Development of law:
1.Law made by the ruler under divine inspiration:-

In the beginning, the law was made by the command of the king b
elieved to be
acting under the divine inspiration of Goddess of justice. Who was
above the law
and whose commands must be obeyed by the inferiors.

2.Customary Law:-

In the next stage, the office of the King or Judge was inspired by the
heads of the
councils. Priest became a repository of law which circulated the King’s
power and
claimed the sole monopoly of knowledge. Therefore, the priest class
tried to
preserve the customs of race or caste intact. Since the art of writing
was not invented, the customs of the community became law for
those who were united
with blood relations. In this way, we notice a special event. The concept
of custom
is a development of the theory of Maine emerging behind the
themesters or
judgments.

3.Knowledge of law in the hands of Priests:-

In the next phase of the development of the law, in order to

implement and
execute the law inspired by the Priest class, t he King’s right claimed to
be learned
in law as well as in religion. The priest class claimed that they
remembered t he
rules of customary law because the art of writing was not developed till
then.

4.Codification:-
Then comes the era of codification marks the fourth and perhaps the
final stage
of development of law. With the discovery of the art of writing, a section
of scholars and jurists came forward to condemn the authority of the
priests as law officials.
He advocated the codification of the law to make it accessible and
easy to know. It broke the monopoly of the Priest class in matters of
administration of law. T he most important codes of the era were
Rome’s Twelve Tables, Codes of Manu which
were a mixture of moral, religious and civil laws, Twelve Tables in
Rome, Attic
Code of Solomon, Hebrew Code, Codes of Hammurabi etc.

Types of Societies:-
According to Henry Maine societies are two types; Progressive Societies
and Static Societies.
Progressive Societies:-

According to Henry Maine, those societies which go beyond the fourth

stage as
developing their laws, by new methods are called progressive
societies.Progress ive societies develop their laws by the three
methods namely; Legal Fiction, Equity,
and Legislation.
Static Societies:-
According to Maine, when the primitive law has been embodied in a
code, there is an end to its spontaneous development and such
communities or societies which
do not modifying or go beyond the fourth stage are called static
societies.

There are generally considered to be five legal systems in the world

today: civil law, common law, customary law, religious law, and mixed
legal systems.

C ivil law systems have their origin in the Roman legal tradition.
Civil systems vary widely, both in procedure and substantive law, so
conducting research on a particular nation's civil law system should
include looking at that nation's specific system of law, but they do
have some trademark characteristics. Nations with civil
law systems have comprehensive, frequently updated legal
codes. Most
importantly, case law is a secondary source in these jurisdictions.
France and Germany are two examples of countries with a civil law
system.

Common law systems, while they often have statutes, rely more on
precedent,
judicial decisions that have already been made. Common law
systems are adversarial, rather than investigatory, with the judge
moderating between two
opposing parties. The legal system in the United States is a common
law system (with the exception of Louisiana, which has a mix of civil
and common law).

Customary law systems are based on patterns of behavior (or

customs) that
have come to be accepted as legal requirements or rules of conduct
within a
particular country. The laws of customary legal systems are usually
unwritten and
are often dispensed by elders, passed down through generations.
As such, customary law research depends greatly on the
use of secondary sources. Oftentimes, customary law practices can
be found in mixed legal system
jurisdictions, where they've combined with civil or common law.

Religious legal systems are systems where the law emanates from
texts or
traditions within a given religious tradition. Many Islamic nations
have legal systems based in whole or in part on the Quran.

Mixed legal systems refer to legal systems where two or more of

the above legal systems work together.

Law is intertwined with the lives of people.It governs the conduct of

people from
cradle to the grave and the influence of law in one’s life even extends
from before
birth to even after death. In this society,there is a complex body or
set of rules
which are made to control the activities of members of the society.
Different laws are available for different situations like laws to govern
working conditions, laws
to control leisure pursuits and laws to regulate relationships of personal
nature.
Terms:
Law:
A binding custom or practice of a commu nity : a rule of conduct
or action
prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a
controlling
authority.[i]
A rule, usually made by the government of a country, that is used to
order the way in which the society has to behave.[ii]
The law is a set of rules that a re laid down to regulate the government
of the state
and control the relationship between the state and its citizens and also
to govern
the relationship between one citizen and another which is
enforceable by the
courts.
Classifications of Law:
Law may be classified in various different ways but the most
important classifications are as follows:
• Public Law and Private Law
• Criminal Law and Civil Law
• Substantive Law and Procedural Law
• Municipal Law and International Law
• Common Law and equity
Public Law and Private Law:

Public law:
Public law is the law that is concerned with the relationship of the
citizens and the state. This consists other different specialist areas
as follows:

Constitutional law:
Constitutional law is concerned with the Indian constitution. It covers
within its
twenty five partsand twenty schedules the composition and
procedures of
Parliament, the functioning of central and local government,
citizenship and the
fundamental rights and liabilities of the citizens of the country.[iii]
Administrative law:
Administrative law is the law that is brought to for better and
convenient
administration of the government and the government bodies. There
has been a stark increase in the activities of government over the
pastfew years. Many schemes have been introduced by the
Government for helping to ensure a proper standard of living for
everyone. A huge number of disputes arise out of the
administration of different schemes and a body of lawhas been
developed to deal with the problems of such persons against the
decision of administrative agency.

Private law:
Private law is the law that is predominantly concerned with the rights
and liabilities
of individuals towards each other. The involvement of the states in this
area of law
is restricted to providing a proper method of resolving the dispute
which has
arisen. Therefore, the legal process gets started by the citizen who is
aggrieved
and not by the state. Private law is also known as‘civil law’ and often it is
in contrast
with criminal laws.
Criminal law and civil law:
Legal law sare classified usually into two different types: criminal and
civil law. It is important to note here that the nature of
thisclassification is because there are major differences in the purpose,
procedures and term inology of every branch of law.
Criminal law:
Criminal law is the law that is connected with the act of forbidding
particular forms
of wrongful conduct and imposing punishment on those who engage in
such acts. Criminal proceedings are usually brought in the name of the
State and are known
as ‘prosecutions’ . It should be noted that prosecutions may be
assessed by a
private individual or other bodies, such as the trading standards
department of the
local authority but cannot undertake the case of the prosecut ion.

In criminal cases there is a prosecutor who prosecutes the

defendant for the
offence committed. The consequences of being proved guilty are so
extreme that the standard of proof is higher in criminal cases as
compared to civil scenarios.The
allegations of a criminal conduct need to be proved beyond
reasonable doubt. If the prosecution successfully proves the guilt
of the defendant, hemight be punished by the court respectively.

Punishments that are available to be imposed on the convict are

imprisonment and
fines. If the prosecution is unsuccessful in proving the guilt of the
accused
defendant, he is acquitted.

Civil law:
The civil law deals with the private rights and duties which arise
between
individuals in a country. The object of a civil action is to correct the
wrongdoing
that has been committed. Enforcement of civil law is the
accountability of the
individual who has committed the wrong and the state is responsible
to provide
for the procedure to resolve the dispute. In case of civil proceedings,
the person
who claims sues the defendant in the civil court and asks for a
remedy. The
claimant will be successful in his claim if he is able to prove his case. If
the claimant
is not successful, the defendant will not be made liable for his actions.

Substantive and Procedural Law:

The law which defines rights and liabilities is known as substantive law.
It is called so since it lays down a proper and precise substance of
subject matter which is enforceable in the courts. The purpose of a
law that is substantive is to define, c reate or confer a proper
substantive legal right o r status or to impose the nature
and extent of any sort of legal duties or obligations.
Substantive law, with regard to a specific subject, defines the legal
rights and
relationship of people between themselves or between them and the
State. Any
wrongdoing of an individual, group of persons or the state against
another will
hold him liable to the others accordingly. For the purpose of any
substantive law,
the wrongs could be either civil or crimina l. Substantive law refers to
all forms of
law both, public and private including the law of contracts, property,
torts and
crimes of all kinds.
The law of procedure is that branch of law thatdeals with the process of
litigation. It embodies the rules and procedures pertaining to the
institution and prosecution
of a ny kind of civil or criminal proceeding. Procedural law consists of a
set of rules
by which a court hears cases and decides the proceedings.
Historically, the law
that many know is substantive law, and procedural law has always
been a matte r
of concern only to those who preside over as judicial officers or those
advocating law. But, over a period of time, the courts developed a
system of evidence and
procedure, that fall within the purview of procedural law relating to
the fairness
and transparency of such process.

Municipal Law and International Law:

Municipal or Domestic law is that facet of law that springs from and has
an effect
on the members of a particular state. An example of a municipal
law is the Constitution of India that applies only in India.

O n the other hand,International law is the law that governs laws

between different
countries. It regulates the relationship between various independent
countries and
is usually governed by treaties, international customs and so on.
Examples of International law include the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights etc.

Common law and equity:

Law may further be classified as per the nature as to whether they

form part of the common law or equity. The distinction between the
systems of common law and equity rises from far long in history and
could be understood properly by an examination of the origins of
English law. The common law is the law followed and
gained by the Crown of England. It could be traced back to 1066 when
William of Normandy obtained the crown of England by defeating King
Harold in the Battle of Hastings. Before the Normans arrived there was
no such thing known as English law. The Anglo-Saxon system of law
was based on the local community. Each and every area possessed its
own system of courts wherein the local customs were
applied as common law. The Normans were great administrators
and they
undertook a process of centralisation that created an accurate
climate for the
evolution of a uniform system of law for the entire country which
is equally
applicable as a rule of law.

Conclusion:
Therefore, law could be classified into different types and every
form of law
emerged over a period of time to form a set of rules that we use to
govern the
society on the whole. According to the various functions governed by
law, it is classified as different forms of law to avoid chaos or
confusion in administering
such laws. Laws are involved into every aspect of human life and it is
imperative
to classify law so as to follow them for the benefit of the society.