Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1)Is there a process put in place that legal researcher should abide to?
1)
2)
3)
4)
From Aquino:
Determine the applicable constitutional provision
Find laws that applied it
Identify cases that interpreted it
Locate non-legal sources that described it
From Rufus Rodriguez:
A. Systematic Approach to Legal Research
Four basic steps are recommended:
1.
2.
3.
4.
After the facts have been analyzed and the issues have been framed, it is time to begin researching the first issue:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Law changes constantly. Our Congress passes new statutes and modify old ones. Our Supreme Court either refines the law
or reaffirms the law or even changes the interpretation of the law.
Topic or Subject Approach: (Please See Complete title of the publication from the Philippine Legal Bibliography chapter)
Philippine Digest
Electronic application is the source for effective legal research. These sources are as follows:
!e-library! A Century & 4 Years of Philippine Supreme Court Decisions 1901-April 2004 . Research & Development
Department, Agoo Computer College, Agoo, Lau Union, Philippines (CD ROM)
eSCRA . Q.C.: Central Book Supply
Law Juan . IPad App (Jurisprudence)
Lex Libris: Jurisprudence. Pasig City: CD Asia Technologies Inc. (CD ROM) and CD Asia online
My Legal Whiz ; Easy Contextual Legal Research ( https://www.mylegalwhiz.com/)
Supreme Court E-Library online
Supreme Court website
Another answer:
change. It shows the way the legal fact is evolved. 98 Fifthly, historical background of law enables law-makers to know the
principles used or followed by Legislature from home or abroad in earlier identical law(s) as ve
4.1.5 Comparative
A comparative legal research carries significance as Legislators, it has been said, imitate each other and try to learn from
each others experience.
3)What are the tools in legal research?
1. Citators ( case citations in a case)
-They supply references to decisions in which other cases have been cited, reviewed, affirmed, reversed, overruled, criticized or
commented upon, and to cases in which statutes have been construed, and to statutes in which prior acts have been amended,
renewed or repealed/
-A citatory (CASE CITATIONS) is a finding tool that provides the subsequent history of reported cases and lists of cases and
legislative enactments construing, applying or affecting statutes
The articulated grounds of past judicial decisions are, in many instances, binding precedent for currently litigated matters. Under
other circumstances, they are "persuasive" authority. In either event, if on point, they should be cited. In the context of legal
citation, judicial opinions are commonly referred to as "cases" and organized collections of opinions are called "law reports" or
"case reports." Most cited "cases" are opinions of appellate courts
2. Indexes
-The word index usually means a subject-index which is like the index found in textbooks, statutes, etc. A subject index is an
alphabetically arranged topical words in which, by means of references under each topic, material relating to these topics
expressed in appropriate words is digested
3. Bibliographies
-A bibliography is a list of descriptions of published materials either relating to a given subject, or by a given author. A
bibliography of law books may refer to a list of an authors legal words, or of the literature bearing on a particular subject or field
of law. Law books publishers are centralbooks and rex bookstore.
4. There are great repositories of laws and jurisprudence, like the LawPhil Project (www.lawphil.net) and the Supreme Court
(sc.judiciary.gov.ph). These sites contain laws and jurisprudence or Philippine Supreme Court decisions. The SC has the ELibrary as a primary research tool, but access is limited.
Other government materials that provide legal materials: national library (nlp.gov.ph), official gazette (gov.ph) senate of the
Philippines (senate.gov.ph), house of representative (congress.gov.ph) supreme court (judiciary.gov.ph), bureau of internal
revenue (bir.gov.ph) Philippines national police (pnp.gov.ph)
Bureau of immigration (immigration.gov.ph) dole (dole.gov.ph) (bureau of customs (customs.gov.ph)
Ched (ched.gov.ph
e-SCRA electronic form of decisions of the supreme court through internet provides complete decision from supreme court
from 1901 to the present.
Our legislative, executive and judicial branches of government have been enacting and promulgating codes, statutes, rules,
regulations and court decisions and these have grown into a large body of law. The researcher therefore needs search materials or
finding tools in order to locate these legal sources. Among the finding tools are:
PHILJURIS
LEX LIBRIS
5.Personal Interviews when documentary sources and other information are inadequate to fully present the issue, one needs to
secure personal interviews from key stakeholders in order to flesh out nuances and explore all angles of the issue being
deliberated.