JUDICIARY

• Judicial Power


  Apply the laws to contests or disputes
• Judicial Power


  • Concerning legally recognized rights and duties
  • Between the states and private persons
  • Between individual litigants
• When cases are properly brought before the judicial tribunals
• Adjudicatory Power


  Duty of Courts of Justice
• Adjudicatory Power


  1. Settle actual controversies involving rights

  2. Rights must be derived from the law or recognized by the law

  3. Determine whether there has been a grave abuse of discretion

  4. Amounting to a lack or excess of jurisdiction

  5. On the part of any branch or instrumentality of the government
• Power of Judicial Review

  • Pass upon the validity or constitutionality of the laws of the state and the acts of the other government departments
  • Interpret them
  • Render binding judgments
• Incidental Powers


  • Effective discharge of the judicial functions
• Incidental Powers


  • Punish persons adjudged in contempt
• Judicial Power


  Vested in one Supreme Court and in a lower court
• Classification of Courts


  • Constitutional Court - Supreme Court being a creation of the constitution
  • Statutory Court/Lower Court - Sandiganbayan and all other courts being creation laws
• Constitutional Court is the Supreme Court, Statutory Courts/Lower Courts are below that of the Supreme Court
• Organization of Regular Courts

  • Court of Appeals (with 69 Justices headed by a Presiding Justice)
  • Regional Trial Court (with 720 regional trial judges in each of the 13 regions)
  • Metropolitan Trial Court (in each metropolitan area)
  • Municipal Trial Court (every city)
  • Municipal Civil Trial Court (in municipalities)
• Sandiganbayan


  14 judges and a presiding justice
• Court of Appellate Justices

  5 justices and a presiding justice
• Importance of the Judiciary

  • Confidence in the certain and even administration of justice
  • Preservation of the government
  • Respect for law and order
• Composition of the Supreme Court

  The 1973 charter includes 15 members, including the chief justice
• Sitting Procedure of the Supreme Court

  The SC may sit and hear cases en banc (i.e., as one body) or in divisions of 3, 5, or 7
• Rule-Making Power of the Supreme Court

  Promulgate Rules for the protection and enforcement of constitutional rights
• Pleading


  The act of presenting one's claim, answer, or arguments in defense or persecution of an action
• Practice of Law


  • Doing or performing services in a court of justice
  • Legal advice and counseling
  • Preparation of legal instruments and contracts
• Procedure


  Method by which substantive rights may be enforced in courts of justice
• Substantive Law


  • Part of the law that creates, defines, and regulates rights
  • Pertains to life, liberty, property, and the powers of agencies or instrumentalities
• Important Legal Documents


  • The Civil Code
  • Code of Commerce
  • Insurance Code
  • Revised Penal Code
  • Criminal Law
  • The Constitution
• Procedural Law


  • Prescribes method of enforcing rights or obtaining redress for their violations
  • Rules related to courts and their jurisdictions, pleading remedies, trials, and evidence
• Qualifications for Members of the Supreme Court and any Lower Collegiate Court

  • Natural-born citizen
  • At least 40 years of age
  • Judges of a lower court or those who have been practicing law for 15 years or longer
  • Persons of proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence
• Tenure of Office for Members of the Judiciary


  Significant factor
• Retirement Age


  70 years old
• Rendering of Decisions


  1. Supreme Court: within 24 months

  2. Court of Appeals and Other Collegiate Appellate Courts: within 12 months

  3. Lower Courts: within 3 months
• Time limitations for rendering decisions are mandatory
• Submission of an annual report on the judiciary's operations and activities to the president and Congress
• The judiciary was instrumental in proposing or enacting legislation affecting the courts and justice administration
• A session that legislate in any matter id deems fit?

  Regular sessions
• The president calls congress 


  Special Session
• session of congress that conduct secret session

  Executive session
• The issue to be discussed involves national security

  Closing session
• Maximum terms of senators

  No more than two consecutive terms
• term of office of house of representative

  3 years