CIVIL PROCEDURE

Rules 1 – 71
•
• I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
•
• Concept of Remedial Law
• Remedial Law is that branch of law which prescribes the method of enforcing rights or obtaining redress for
their invasion
• Substantive Law as Distinguished from Remedial Law
• Substantive law creates, defines and regulates rights and duties regarding life, liberty or property which
when violated gives rise to a cause of action (Bustos v. Lucero, 81 Phil. 640).
• Remedial law prescribes the methods of enforcing those rights and obligations created by substantive law by
providing a procedural system for obtaining redress for the invasion of rights and violations of duties and by
prescribing rules as to how suits are filed, tried and decided by the courts.
• As applied to criminal law, substantive law is that which declares what acts are crimes and prescribes the
punishment for committing them, as distinguished from remedial law which provides or regulates the steps
by which one who commits a crime is to be punished.
• Rule-Making Power of the Supreme Court
• Section 5 (5), Art. VIII of the Constitution provides that the Supreme
Court shall have the power to promulgate rules concerning the
protection and enforcement of constitutional rights, pleading,
practice, and procedure in all courts, the admission to the practice of
law, the Integrated Bar, and legal assistance to the
underprivileged. Such rules shall provide a simplified and inexpensive
procedure for the speed disposition of cases, shall be uniform for all
courts of the same grade, and shall not diminish, increase, or modify
substantive rights. Rules of procedure of special courts and quasi-
judicial bodies shall remain effective unless disapproved by the
Supreme Court.
• Limitations of the Rule-making Power of the Supreme Court
• (1) The rules shall provide a simplified and inexpensive procedure for the
speedy disposition of cases
• (2) They shall be uniform for all courts of the same grade
• (3) They shall not diminish, increase, or modify substantive rights (Sec.
5[5], Art. VIII, Constitution).
• (4) The power to admit attorneys to the Bar is not an arbitrary and
despotic one, to be exercised at the pleasure of the court, or from passion,
prejudice or personal hostility, but is the duty of the court to exercise and
regulate it by a sound and judicial discretion. (Andres vs. Cabrera, 127 SCRA
802)
• What is a Court
• (1) It is an organ of government belonging to the judicial
department the function of which is the application of the laws to the
controversies brought before it as well as the public administration of
justice.
• (2) It is a governmental body officially assembled under authority of
law at the appropriate time and place for the administration of justice
through which the State enforces its sovereign rights and powers (21
CJS 16).
• (3) It is a board or tribunal which decides a litigation or
contest (Hidalgo v. Manglapus, 64 OG 3189).