I.

Conflicts of Law

Definition: is that part of the municipal law of the State which directs its courts and
administrative agencies, when confronted with a legal problem involving a foreign
element, whether or not they should apply a local or foreign law.

Defenition according to Salonga:

Note: Conflict of laws is NOT part of international law. Although it is sometimes

thought of as part of international law because of the presence of a foreign element
in a given problem, it is not international law in character but is part of the
municipal law of each state. By municipal law in Conflict of Laws is meant the
internal or local law of each state.

ELEMENTS:
1.Part municipal law;
2.Primary function is to determine whether the law or judgment of other stats will
govern if so, the extent of its recognition/application in the forum;
3.**Legal problem or case involving a foreign element; and
4.Application or non-application of foreign law.

Sources:
1. Direct Sources
a. Treaties and International Law
b. Constitution
c. Codification and Statutes
d. International Customs

2. Indirect Sources
a. The Natural and Moral Law
b. The Writings and Treaties of Thinkers, Famous Writers, and Jurist on the Subject,
Among others.
II ISSUE of JURISDICTION

A. Forum Non Conviniens

A Courts discretionary power to decline to exercise its jurisdiction where another
court may more conveniently hear a case.

Manila Hotel Corp. vs NLRC

1. Not all cases involving Filipino citizens can be tried in the Philippines.
The NLRC was a seriously inconvenient forum. The SC noted that the main aspects of
the case transpired in two foreign jurisdictions and the case involves purely foreign
elements. The only link that the Philippines has with the case is that respondent Santos is
a Filipino citizen. The Palace Hotel and MHICL are foreign corporations. Not all cases
involving our citizens can be tried here.

The employment contract.Respondent Santos was hired directly by the Palace Hotel, a
foreign employer, through correspondence sent to the Sultanate of Oman, where
respondent Santos was then employed. He was hired without the intervention of the
POEA or any authorized recruitment agency of the government.

MHIL and the Palace Hotel are not doing business in the Philippines; their agents/officers
are not residents of the Philippines.

Due to the foregoing, the NLRC cannot possibly determine all the relevant facts
pertaining to the case. It is not competent to determine the facts because the acts
complained of happened outside our jurisdiction. It cannot determine which law is
applicable. And in case a judgment is rendered, it cannot be enforced against the Palace
Hotel (in the first place, it was not served any summons).

Under the rule of forum non conveniens, a Philippine court or agency may assume
jurisdiction over the case if it chooses to do so provided:
(1) that the Philippine court is one to which the parties may conveniently resort to;
(2) that the Philippine court is in a position to make an intelligent decision as to the law
and the facts; and
(3) that the Philippine court has or is likely to have power to enforce its decision.
The conditions are unavailing in the case at bar. the Court granted the petition for
certiorari in favor of the petitioner and annulled the previous orders of the NLRC.

Some Instances where forum can assume jurisdiction

1. Evidences and witnesses are not readily available; (Manila Hotel Case)
2. Court dockets are clogged in adherence with speedy administrative of justice rule;
3. to curb the evil of forum shopping, 1st tribunal to take jurisdiction of the case;
4. If local court has no particular interest; (Manila Hotel)
5. Better tried in other courts.
6. inadequacy of the local judicial machinery; and
7. Difficulty of ascertaining the foreign law applicable.

Requisites of Recognition and enforcement of Foreign Judgment

1. Proof of foreign judgment
2. Civil and commercial matter
3. there must be NO lack of JURIS, want notice, collition, fraud, mistake of fact,
mistake of law
4. not contrary to public policy
5. judgment must be res judicata.

Recognition v. Enforcement
R: stand on its own; E: necessarily carries with it recognition of the foreign
judgment;

B. Lex Fori- Applying the LOCAL Law, applicable if it expressly stated by law; or if it
belong to the exceptions to comity. EXPNS to COMITY: criminal , fiscal, or procedural
in nature, etc.
When can local law be applied
1.failure to plead foreign law

C. When can LEX CAUSAE Foreign Law

1. foreign law is properly pleaded with proved
2. if the matter does NOT fall under in the exceptions to comity.

EFFECT of FOREIGN JUDGMENT

Barretto Gonzalez vs. Gonzalez

1. 1.MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE; DIVORCE LAWS OF THE PHILIPPINESThe

hardships of the existing divorce laws of the Philippine Islands are well
known to the members of the Legislature It is the duty of the courts to
enforce the laws of divorce as written by the Legislature if they are
constitutional. Courts have no right to say that such laws are too strict or too
liberal
2.ID.; ID.; EFFECT OF FOREIGN DIVORCE IN THE PHILIPPINES.Litigants can
not compel the courts to approve of their own actions or permit the personal
relations of the citizens of these Islands to be affected by decrees of divorce of
foreign courts in a manner which our Government believes is contrary to public
order and good morals.

III. Nature, Composition, and Characterization of conflicts rules

Characterization- Doctrine of qualification

Conflicts rule- a provision found in our own law which governs a factual situation
possessed of a foreign element. It is usually expressed in the form of an abstract
proposition that a given legal question is governed by the law of a particular
country, to be ascertained in the manner indicated in the provision.
Ordinary Internal rule- Authorize, command, or prohibit certain mode of conduct its
legal effects are immediately indicated;, resolves domestic problems, simply apply
the law
Conflicts rules- decides on which law or jurisdiction will give the final solution to
the question;, apply conflicts rules, what will apply foreign or national.

Kinds: one sided or multi sided

One sided- indicates when Philippine law will apply, Art 15(Family right binding
upon all fil.)
All sided- indicates whether to apply local or proper foreign law; foreign law is
applicable (Art16 Succession must be governed by national law of the deceased)

Composition of Conflicts rules

Factual situation
- what sets of facts or situation presenting a conflicts problem because there is
a foreign element involved.

Point of contact- tells you the law of the country where it intimately connected to
factual situation (Ex: Art 16 NCC national law of the deceased)

Characterization of Conflict Rules:

Characterization is the process of deciding whether or not the facts relate to the
kind of question specified in the conflicts rules.

Characterization is defined as the process by which a court at the beginning of the

choice-of-law process assigns a disputed question to an area in substantive law,
such as torts, contracts, family law, or property.

STEPS in CHARACTERIZATION
1. the determination of the facts involve
2. the characterization of the factual situation;
3. the determination of the conflicts rule which is to be applied; STOP
4. the characterization of the point of contract where the connecting factor; in case
of doubt local law
5. the characterization of the problem as procedural or substantive;
6. the pleading and proving of foreign law;
7. the application of the proper foreign law to the problem.

RULES on CHARACTERIZATION
GR: if issue is Substantive- Foreign law; if Procedural- Local law or lex fori

1. Question of Evidence- Procedural

2. Statutes of Frauds (SUI GENERIS)

a. substantive if it forbids the obligation
b. Procedural if the law forbids the enforcement of the obligation

LWV Contruction vs Marcelo Dupo

Applicable law is Art. 291 of the Phil. Labor Code which provides that all money
claims arising from employer-employee relations shall be filed within 3 years from
the time the cause of action accrued otherwise they shall be forever barred. It is not
limited to money claims recoverable under the labor code but also applies to claims
of overseas contract workers. As held in the Cadalin case, procedural matters are
governed by the laws of the forum even if the action is based upon a foreign
substantive law. Thus, respondents action has not prescribed.

3. Borrowing Statute, directs the state of the forum to apply the foreign statute of
limitations to the pending claims based on a foreign law (treats the statute of
limitations as a substantive law). Rationale is to prevent forum shopping.

IV. STATUS and CAPACITY

What is Status? Place of an individual in

society and consists of personal qualities and relationships more or less permanent,
with which the state and the community concerned

4 Characteristics of Status

1.It is conferred principally by the State, not by the individual

2. It is a matter of public interest or social interest
3. Being a concept of social order, it cannot easily be terminated at the mere will or
desire of the parties concerned
4. It is generally supposed to have a universal character

what si Capacity?- right of a person to enter into contrct and the sum of rights
only parts of one status and may be defined as the sum total of his rights and
obligation

Two kinds of capacity

1. Juridical capacity
Passive capacity
The fitness to be the subject of legal relations

2. Capacity to act
Active capacity
The power to do acts with legal effects
Characteristics

Theories

1.) Nationality Theory- the status and capacity of the person is determined by the
law of his nationality or national law.

Nationality refers to the membership in a political community.

3 kinds of citizen
1. Natural Born - those citizens from birth without having to perform any act to
acquire or perfect their PH citizenship.
2. Naturalized Citizen- those who are not natural born citizens and those who
become such by virtue of a judicial proceeding.
3. Citizen by election- those by law, become citizen of the PH by electing or choosing
PH citizenship at the age of 21 or within the reasonable time thereafter.

2 modes of Citizenship
1. Jus Soli- citizenship follows the PLACE of birth.
2. Jus Sanguinis citizendhip follows the citizenship of the parents.

1987 Consti
1. those who are citizens of the PH at the time of the adoption of this consti;
2. those whose fathers AND mothers are citizen of PH;
3. those born before Jan 17, 1973 of Filipino mothers, who elect PH citizenship upon
reaching the age of majority;
4. those who are naturalized in accordance with law.

In the 1935 Constitution, Filipino citizenship was defined, classified and

regulated by Article IV, which stated that:
Section 1. The following are citizens of the Philippines
(1) Those who are citizens of the Philippine Islands at the time of the
adoption of this Constitution
(2) Those born in the Philippine Islands of foreign parents who, before the
adoption of the Constitution, had been elected to public office in the Philippine
Islands
(3) Those whose fathers are citizens of the Philippines
(4) Those whose mothers are citizens of the Philippines, and upon reaching
the age of majority, elect Philippine citizenship
(5) Those who are naturalized in accordance with law.

F. 1973 Constitution
Article III, Section 2 enumerates the following as citizens of
the Philippines:
1. Those who are citizens of the Philippines at the time of the adoption of
this Constitution.
2. Those whose fathers or mothers are citizens of the Philippines
3. Those who elect Philippine citizenship pursuant to the provisions of the
Constitution of nineteen hundred and thirty-five
4. Those who are naturalized in accordance with law.

DUAL CITIZENS

In re Chua tan Chuan (NO Judicial Declaration

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW; CITIZENSHIP; CHANGE THEREOF CANNOT BE EFFECTED THROUGH A
PETITION FOR THE CORRECTION OF ENTRY IN THE CIVIL REGISTRY. The appealed decision
granting a petition for the correction of entry in a certificate of birth of an alien national thereby
allowing him to become a Filipino citizen suffers from a congenital infirmity beyond the possibility of
cure. It cannot survive. Such an action in effect, requests the judicial declaration of Philippine
citizenship and as has been clearly stated time and again, declaratory relief is not available for the
purpose of obtaining a judicial declaration of citizenship. (Reyes v. Republic, L-17642, Nov. 27,
1964)