It refers to foreign flag under which a merchant vessel

Q: What is the Constitution? is registered for purposes of reducing operating costs

A: The Constitution is the basic and paramount law or avoiding government regulations.
to which all other laws must conform and to which all
persons, including the highest officials, must defer. Q: What is the Tobar or Wilson doctrine?
(Cruz, Constitutional Law, 1998 ed., p. 4) A: It precludes recognition to any government coming
into existence by revolutionary means so long as the
Q: What is the doctrine of Constitutional freely elected representatives of the people thereof
Supremacy? have not constitutionally reorganized the country.
A: Under this doctrine, if a law or contract violates
any norm of the Constitution, that law or contract, Q: What is the Estrada Doctrine?
whether promulgated by the legislative or by the A: It involves a policy of never issuing any declaration
executive branch or entered into by private persons giving recognition to governments and of accepting
for private purposes, is null and void and without any whatever government is in effective control without
force and effect. Thus, since the Constitution is the raising the issue of recognition. An inquiry into
fundamental, paramount and supreme law of the legitimacy would be an intervention in the internal
nation, it is deemed written in every statute and affairs of another State.
contract. (Manila Prince Hotel v. GSIS, G.R. No. Q: Under international law, what are hard law
122156, Feb. 3, 1997) and soft law?
Q: What is the Doctrine of Incorporation? A: Hard law means binding laws. To constitute law, a
A: Under this doctrine, rules of international law form rule, instrument or decision must be authoritative
part of the law of the land and no further legislative and prescriptive. In international law, hard law
action is needed to make such rules applicable in the includes treaties or international agreements, as well
domestic sphere. The doctrine decrees that rules of as customary laws. These instruments result in
international law are given equal standing with, but legally enforceable commitments for countries (states)
are not superior to, national legislative enactments. and other international subjects.
Q: What is the Doctrine of Transformation? Soft law means commitments made by negotiating
A: This doctrine holds that the generally accepted parties that are not legally binding. By implication,
rules of international law are not per se binding upon those set of international customary rules, laws and
the state but must first be embodied in legislation customs which do not carry any binding effect
enacted by the lawmaking body and so transformed whatsoever or impose no obligation at all to states for
into municipal law. its compliance.
Q: What is erga omnes?
Q: How is State sovereignty defined in A: It is an obligation of every State towards the
international law? international community as a whole. All states have a
A: The right to exercise in a definite portion of the legal interest in its compliance, and thus all States
globe the functions of a State to the exclusion of are entitled to invoke responsibility for breach of such
another State. Sovereignty in the relations between an obligation. (Case Concerning The Barcelona
States signifies independence. Independence in regard Traction, ICJ 1970)
to a portion of the globe is the right to exercise therein Q: What is jus cogens norm?
to the exclusion of any other State, the functions of a A: A jus cogens norm is a norm accepted and
State. (Island of Palmas case: USA v. the Netherlands) recognized by the international community of States
as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is
If State sovereignty is said to be absolute, how is permitted and which can be modified only by a
it related to the independence of other States and subsequent norm of general international law having
to their equality on the international plane? the same character. (Art. 53, Vienna Convention on the
From the standpoint of the national legal order, State Law of Treaties)
sovereignty is the supreme legal authority in relation Just cogens customary international law has the
to subjects within its territorial domain. This is the status of a peremptory norm of international law,
traditional context in referring to sovereignty as accepted and recognized by the international
absolute. However, in international sphere, community of states as a rule from which no derogation
sovereignty realizes itself in the existence of a large is permitted. Accordingly, a treaty whose provisions
number of sovereignties, such that there prevails in contravene such norms/rules may be invalidated.
fact coexistence of sovereignties under conditions of
independence and equality. Q: How is State sovereignty defined in
international law?
Q: What is the Doctrine of Autolimitation? A: The right to exercise in a definite portion of the
A: It is the doctrine where the Philippines adhere to globe the functions of a State to the exclusion of
principles of international law as a limitation to the another State. Sovereignty in the relations between
exercise of its sovereignty. States signifies independence. Independence in regard
Note: The fact that the international law has been to a portion of the globe is the right to exercise therein
made part of the law of the land does not by any to the exclusion of any other State, the functions of a
means imply the primacy of international law over State. (Island of Palmas case: USA v. the Netherlands)
national law in the municipal sphere. (Philip Morris, Doctrine of sovereign immunity
Inc. v. CA, G.R. No. 91332, July 16, 1993) Doctrine by which the sovereign or state cannot
What is flag State? commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil
suit or criminal prosecution. This principle is
A: It refers to the State whose nationality the ship commonly expressed by the maxim rex on potest
possesses; for it is nationality which gives the right to peccare meaning the king can do no wrong.
fly a countrys flag. (Salonga & Yap, 1992) In the high
seas, a state has exclusive jurisdiction over ships Q: Distinguish de jure recognition from de facto
sailing under its flag. It is required however, that recognition.
there exists a genuine link between the State and the De facto: extended by the recognizing state which
ship. (Article 91[1], 92[2 , UNCLOS) belives that some of the requirements for recognition
are absent. The recognition is generally provisional
What is flag of convenience? and limited ot certain juridical relations; it does not
bring about full diplomatic intercourse and does not
give title to assets of the state held/situated abroad
De jure: extended to a government fulfilling the
requirements for recognition. When there is no
specific indication, recongition is generally considered
as de jure. The recognition is relatively permanent;
brings about full diplomatic intercourse and
observance of diplomatic immunities; and confers title
to assets abroad.
Q: Distinguish extradition from deportation.
Extradition
Effected at the request of the state of origin
Based on offenses committed in the State of origin
Calls of the return of the fugitive to the State or origin
Deportation
Unilateral act of the local state
Based on causes arising in the local State
Undesirable alien may be deported to a State other
than his own or the State of origin (1995 Bar
Question)
Mandates legal status for certain territories
transferred from the control of one country to another
following WW1 or the legal isntruments that
contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for
administering the territory on behalf of the league
Trust Territories were the successors of the
remaining League of Nations mandates, and came
into being when the League of nations ceased to exist
in 1946. All of the trust territories were administered
throught he UN Trusteeship Council.
Explain the right of innocent passage.
It means navigation through the territorial sea of a
State for the purpose of traversing the sea without
entering internal waters, or of proceeding to internal
waters, or making for the high seas from internal
waters, as long as it is not prejudicial to the peace,
good order or security of the coastal State. (Articles 18
[1][2], 19[1], UNCLOS)
Q: What is statelessness? What are the kinds of
statelessness?
A: It is the condition or status of an individual who is
either:
De Jure Stateless persons stripped of their
nationality by their former government and without
having an opportunity to acquire another
De Facto Stateless persons those who possess a
nationality whose country does not give them
protection outside their own country and who are
commonly referred to as refugees. (Frivaldo v.
COMELEC, G.R. No. 123755, June 28, 1996)
Q: What are the consequences of statelessness?
A:
1. No State can intervene or complain in behalf of the
Stateless person for an international delinquency
committed by another State in inflicting injury upon
him
2. He cannot be expelled by the State if he is lawfully
in its territory except on grounds of national security
or public order
He cannot avail himself of the protection and benefits
of citizenship like securing for himself a passport or
visa and personal documents
Q: Is a Stateless person entirely without right,
protection or recourse under the Law of Nations?
A: No. Under the Convention in Relation to the Status
of Stateless Persons, the contracting States agree to
accord the stateless persons within their territories
treatment at least as favorable as that accorded their
nationals with respect to:
1. Freedom of religion
2. Access to the courts
3. Rationing of products in short supply
4. Elementary education
5. Public relief and assistancE
6. Labor legislation
7. SOCIAL SECURITY
Note: They also agree to accord them treatment not
less favorable than that accorded to aliens generally
in the same circumstances. The Convention also
provides for the issuance of identity papers and travel
documents to the Stateless persons.
Q: What measures has international law taken to
prevent Statelessness?
A: In the Convention on the Conflict of Nationality
Laws of 1930, the Contracting States agree to accord
nationality to persons born in their territory who
would otherwise be stateless. The Convention on the
Reduction of Statelessness of 1961 provides that if the
law of the contracting States results in the loss of
nationality, as a consequence of marriage or
termination of marriage, such loss must be
conditional upon possession or acquisition of another
nationality.
Q: Distinguish briefly but clearly between the
territorial sea and the internal waters of the
Philippines.
A: Territorial water is defined by historic right or
treaty limits while internal water is defined by the
archipelago doctrine. The territorial waters, as defined
in the Convention on the Law of the Sea, has a
uniform breadth of 12 miles measured from the lower
water mark of the coast; while the outermost points of
our archipelago which are connected with baselines
and all waters comprised therein are regarded as
internal waters. (2004 Bar Question)
Q: What is the contiguous zone? A: The contiguous
zone is the zone adjacent to the territorial sea, which
the coastal State may exercise such control as is
necessary to (1) prevent infringement of its customs,
fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws within its
territory or its territorial sea or (2) to punish such
infringement. The contiguous zone may not extend
more than 24 nautical miles beyond the baseline from
which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured
(twelve nautical miles from the territorial sea [Article
33, UNCLOS).
What is the exclusive economic zone?
A: It gives the coastal State sovereign rights over all
economic resources of the sea, seabed and subsoil in
an area extending not more than 200 nautical miles
beyond the baseline from which the territorial sea is
measured. (Magallona, 2005; Articles 55 & 57,
UNCLOS))
What are the grounds for termination of a treaty?
A:
1. Termination of the treaty or withdrawal of a party
in accordance with the terms of the treaty.
2. Extinction of one of the parties to the treaty.
3. Mutual agreement of all the parties to terminate
the treaty.
4. Denunciation of the treaty by one of the parties.
5. Supervening impossibility of performance.
6. Conclusion of a subsequent treaty inconsistent
between the same parties.
7. Violation of the treaty by one of the parties.
8. Doctrine of rebus sic stantibus
9. Outbreak of war between the parties to the treaty.
10. Severance of diplomatic or consular relations
11. The emergence of new peremptory norm of general
international law renders void and terminates any
existing treaty in conflict with such norm.