CHAPTER 1
been deliberately general and extensive in its scope and
1. Ware v. Hylton
3 Wall, 199, 228 (US 1796)
Relation to Municipal Law
When the US declared their independence, they were
bound to receive the law of nations in its modern state of
purity and refinement.
The law of nations is a part of the law of Great Britain.
2. Paquete Habana Case
175 US 677
Relation to Municipal Law
International law is a part of our law and must be
ascertained and administered by the courts of justice of
appropriate jurisdiction as often as questions of rights
depending upon it are presented for determination.
3. Kuroda v. Jalandoni
42 OG 4282
Relation to Municipal Law
Petitioner argues that respondent military commission
has no jurisdiction to try petitioner for acts committed in
violation of the Hague Convention and the Geneva
Convention because the Philippines is not a signatory to
the first and signed the second only in 1947. It cannot be
denied that the rules and regulations of the Hague and
Geneva Conventions form part of and are wholly based
on the generally accepted principles of international law.
In fact, these rules and principles were accepted by the
two belligerent nations, the United States and Japan, who
were signatories to the two Conventions. Such rules and
principles, therefore, form part of the law of our nation
even if the Philippines was not a signatory to the
conventions embodying them, for our Constitution has
is not confined to the recognition of rules and principles of
international law as contained in treaties to which our
government may have been or shall be a signatory.
4. Co Kim Chan v. Valdez Tan Keh
GR No. L-5; Sept. 17, 1945
Relation to Municipal Law
SC rejected the view that General MacArthurs
Proclamation of October 23, 1944 invalidated all judicial
proceedings during the Japanese belligerent occupation
of the Philippines because the edict declared null and
void all laws regulations and processes of any other
government than that of the Commonwealth.
Taking into consideration the fact that according to a
well-known principle of international law, all judgments
and judicial proceedings which are not of a political
complexion of the de facto government during the
Japanese military remained so after the occupied territory
had come again into the power of the titular sovereign, it
should be presumed that it was not and could not have
been the intention of General MacArthur, in using the
phrase processes of any other government in said
proclamation, to refer to judicial processes, in violation of
said principle of international law
5. The Nereide
9 Cranch 388 (1815)
Relation to Municipal Law
SC of the US held that it was bound by the law of nations,
which is a part of the law of the land.
6. The Over the Top
5 F 2d 838 (D. Conn. 1125)
Relation to Municipal Law
SC of the US pronounced that international law is law
only in so far as we adopt it and, like all common or
statute law, it bends to the will of Congress.
7. Triquet v. Bath
Fenwick, Cases, 31
Relation to Municipal Law
Lord Mansfield held that the law of nations, in its full
extent, was part of the law of England.
8. Ichong v. Hernandez
GR No. L-7995; May 31, 1957
Constitution v. Treaty
SC rejected the assertion that the Retail Trade
Nationalization Law violated the Treaty of Amity between
the Philippines and China, the United Nations Charter
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But even assuming that the law infringes upon the said
treaty, the treaty is always subject to qualification or
amendment by a subsequent law, and the same may
never curtail or restrict the scope of the police power of
the State.
9. Gonzalez v. Hechanova
GR No. L-21897; Oct. 22, 1963
Constitution v. Treaty
The President of the Philippines had by executive
agreements contracted for the importation of rice from
Burma and Vietnam without first securing from the
National Economic Council the certification required by
the law that there was a shortage of the said cereal in the
Philippines at the time. Notwithstanding that in
international law treaties and executive agreements are
equally binding commitments of the contracting states,
the SC held that although the President may, under
American constitutional system, enter into executive
agreements without previous legislative authority, he may
not, by executive agreements, enter into a transaction
which is prohibited by statutes enacted prior thereto. He
may not defeat legislative enactments by indirectly
repealing the same through an executive agreement
providing for the very act prohibited by said laws. As
regards the question of whether an international
agreement may be invalidated by the courts, suffice it to
say that the Constitution authorizes the nullification of a
treaty not only when it conflicts with the Constitution but
also when it runs counter to an act of Congress.
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10. Thirty Hogshead of Sugar v. Boyle
9 Cranch 191, 198
Secondary Sources
Chief Justice John Marshall of the US SC declared that
the decisions of the courts of every country, so far as they
are founded upon a law common to every country, will be
received, not as authority, but with respect. The decisions
of the courts of every country show how the Law of
Nations, in the given case, is understood in that country,
and will be considered in adopting the rule which is to
prevail in this.
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