Monday, January 30, 2012
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Rationalism
Rationalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background
Since the Enlightenment, rationalism is usually associated with the introduction of mathematical methods into philosophy, as in Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza (Bourke 263). This is commonly called continental rationalism, because it was predominant in the continental schools of Europe, whereas in Britain empiricism dominated.
Rationalism is often contrasted with empiricism. Taken very broadly these views are not mutually exclusive, since a philosopher can be both rationalist and empiricist (Lacey 286–287). Taken to extremes the empiricist view holds that all ideas come to us through experience, either through the external senses or through such inner sensations as pain and gratification, and thus that knowledge is essentially based on or derived from experience. At issue is the fundamental source of human knowledge, and the proper techniques for verifying what we think we know (see Epistemology).
Proponents of some varieties of rationalism argue that, starting with foundational basic principles, like the axioms of geometry, one could deductively derive the rest of all possible knowledge. The philosophers who held this view most clearly were Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, whose attempts to grapple with the epistemological and metaphysical problems raised by Descartes led to a development of the fundamental approach of rationalism. Both Spinoza and Leibniz asserted that, in principle, all knowledge, including scientific knowledge, could be gained through the use of reason alone, though they both observed that this was not possible in practice for human beings except in specific areas such as mathematics. On the other hand, Leibniz admitted that "we are all mere Empirics in three fourths of our actions" (Monadology § 28, cited in Audi 772). Rationalism is predicting and explaining behavior based on logic.
[edit]Philosophical usage
The distinction between rationalists and empiricists was drawn at a later period, and would not have been recognized by the philosophers involved. Also, the distinction was not as clear-cut as is sometimes suggested; for example, the three main rationalists were all committed to the importance of empirical science, and in many respects the empiricists were closer to Descartes in their methods and metaphysical theories than were Spinoza and Leibniz.
[edit]History
[edit]René Descartes (1596–1650)
Main article: René Descartes
Descartes thought that only knowledge of eternal truths – including the truths of mathematics, and the epistemological and metaphysical foundations of the sciences – could be attained by reason alone; other knowledge, the knowledge of physics, required experience of the world, aided by the scientific method. He also argued that although dreams appear as real as sense experience, these dreams cannot provide persons with knowledge. Also, since conscious sense experience can be the cause of illusions, then sense experience itself can be doubtable. As a result, Descartes deduced that a rational pursuit of truth should doubt every belief about reality. He elaborated these beliefs in such works as Discourse on Method, Meditations on First Philosophy, and Principles of Philosophy. Descartes developed a method to attain truths according to which nothing that cannot be recognised by the intellect (or reason) can be classified as knowledge. These truths are gained "without any sensory experience", according to Descartes. Truths that are attained by reason are broken down into elements that intuition can grasp, which, through a purely deductive process, will result in clear truths about reality.
Descartes therefore argued, as a result of his method, that reason alone determined knowledge, and that this could be done independently of the senses. For instance, his famous dictum, cogito ergo sum, is a conclusion reached a priori ie. not through an inference from experience. This was, for Descartes, an irrefutable principle upon which to ground all forms of other knowledge. Descartes posited a metaphysical dualism, distinguishing between the substances of the human body ("res extensa") and the mind or soul ("res cogitans"). This crucial distinction would be left unresolved and lead to what is known as the mind-body problem, since the two substances in the Cartesian system are independent of each other and irreducible.
[edit]Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)
Main article: Philosophy of Spinoza
The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza is a systematic, logical, rational philosophy developed in seventeenth-century Europe.[1][2][3] Spinoza's philosophy is a system of ideas constructed upon basic building blocks with an internal consistency with which Spinoza tried to answer life's major questions and in which he proposed that "God exists only philosophically."[3][4] He was heavily influenced by thinkers such as Descartes[5], Euclid[4] and Thomas Hobbes[5], as well as theologians in the Jewish philosophical tradition such as Maimonides.[5] But his work was in many respects a departure from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Many of Spinoza's ideas continue to vex thinkers today and many of his principles, particularly regarding the emotions, have implications for modern approaches to psychology. Even top thinkers have found Spinoza's "geometrical method"[3] difficult to comprehend: Goethe admitted that he "could not really understand what Spinoza was on about most of the time."[3] His magnum opus, Ethics, contains unresolved obscurities and has a forbidding mathematical structure modeled on Euclid's geometry.[4] Spinoza's philosophy attracted believers such as Albert Einstein[6] and much intellectual attention.[7][8][9][10][11]
[edit]Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716)
Main article: Gottfried Leibniz
Leibniz was the last of the great Rationalists who contributed heavily to other fields such as mathematics. He did not develop his system, however, independently of these advances. Leibniz rejected Cartesian dualism and denied the existence of a material world. In Leibniz's view there are infinitely many simple substances, which he called "monads" (possibly taking the term from the work of Anne Conway).
Leibniz developed his theory of monads in response to both Descartes and Spinoza. In rejecting this response he was forced to arrive at his own solution. Monads are the fundamental unit of reality, according to Leibniz, constituting both inanimate and animate things. These units of reality represent the universe, though they are not subject to the laws of causality or space (which he called "well-founded phenomena"). Leibniz, therefore, introduced his principle of pre-established harmony to account for apparent causality in the world.
[edit]Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
Main article: Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant started as a traditional rationalist, having studied the rationalists Leibniz and Wolff, but after studying David Hume's works, which "awoke [him] from [his] dogmatic slumbers", he developed a distinctive and very influential rationalism of his own, which attempted to synthesise the traditional rationalist and empiricist traditions.
Kant named his branch of epistemology Transcendental Idealism, and he first laid out these views in his famous work The Critique of Pure Reason. In it he argued that there were fundamental problems with both rationalist and empiricist dogma. To the rationalists he argued, broadly, that pure reason is flawed when it goes beyond its limits and claims to know those things that are necessarily beyond the realm of all possible experience: the existence of God, free will, and the immortality of the human soul. Kant referred to these objects as "The Thing in Itself" and goes on to argue that their status as objects beyond all possible experience by definition means we cannot know them. To the empiricist he argued that while it is correct that experience is fundamentally necessary for human knowledge, reason is necessary for processing that experience into coherent thought. He therefore concludes that both reason and experience are necessary for human knowledge.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background
Since the Enlightenment, rationalism is usually associated with the introduction of mathematical methods into philosophy, as in Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza (Bourke 263). This is commonly called continental rationalism, because it was predominant in the continental schools of Europe, whereas in Britain empiricism dominated.
Rationalism is often contrasted with empiricism. Taken very broadly these views are not mutually exclusive, since a philosopher can be both rationalist and empiricist (Lacey 286–287). Taken to extremes the empiricist view holds that all ideas come to us through experience, either through the external senses or through such inner sensations as pain and gratification, and thus that knowledge is essentially based on or derived from experience. At issue is the fundamental source of human knowledge, and the proper techniques for verifying what we think we know (see Epistemology).
Proponents of some varieties of rationalism argue that, starting with foundational basic principles, like the axioms of geometry, one could deductively derive the rest of all possible knowledge. The philosophers who held this view most clearly were Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, whose attempts to grapple with the epistemological and metaphysical problems raised by Descartes led to a development of the fundamental approach of rationalism. Both Spinoza and Leibniz asserted that, in principle, all knowledge, including scientific knowledge, could be gained through the use of reason alone, though they both observed that this was not possible in practice for human beings except in specific areas such as mathematics. On the other hand, Leibniz admitted that "we are all mere Empirics in three fourths of our actions" (Monadology § 28, cited in Audi 772). Rationalism is predicting and explaining behavior based on logic.
[edit]Philosophical usage
The distinction between rationalists and empiricists was drawn at a later period, and would not have been recognized by the philosophers involved. Also, the distinction was not as clear-cut as is sometimes suggested; for example, the three main rationalists were all committed to the importance of empirical science, and in many respects the empiricists were closer to Descartes in their methods and metaphysical theories than were Spinoza and Leibniz.
[edit]History
[edit]René Descartes (1596–1650)
Main article: René Descartes
Descartes thought that only knowledge of eternal truths – including the truths of mathematics, and the epistemological and metaphysical foundations of the sciences – could be attained by reason alone; other knowledge, the knowledge of physics, required experience of the world, aided by the scientific method. He also argued that although dreams appear as real as sense experience, these dreams cannot provide persons with knowledge. Also, since conscious sense experience can be the cause of illusions, then sense experience itself can be doubtable. As a result, Descartes deduced that a rational pursuit of truth should doubt every belief about reality. He elaborated these beliefs in such works as Discourse on Method, Meditations on First Philosophy, and Principles of Philosophy. Descartes developed a method to attain truths according to which nothing that cannot be recognised by the intellect (or reason) can be classified as knowledge. These truths are gained "without any sensory experience", according to Descartes. Truths that are attained by reason are broken down into elements that intuition can grasp, which, through a purely deductive process, will result in clear truths about reality.
Descartes therefore argued, as a result of his method, that reason alone determined knowledge, and that this could be done independently of the senses. For instance, his famous dictum, cogito ergo sum, is a conclusion reached a priori ie. not through an inference from experience. This was, for Descartes, an irrefutable principle upon which to ground all forms of other knowledge. Descartes posited a metaphysical dualism, distinguishing between the substances of the human body ("res extensa") and the mind or soul ("res cogitans"). This crucial distinction would be left unresolved and lead to what is known as the mind-body problem, since the two substances in the Cartesian system are independent of each other and irreducible.
[edit]Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)
Main article: Philosophy of Spinoza
The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza is a systematic, logical, rational philosophy developed in seventeenth-century Europe.[1][2][3] Spinoza's philosophy is a system of ideas constructed upon basic building blocks with an internal consistency with which Spinoza tried to answer life's major questions and in which he proposed that "God exists only philosophically."[3][4] He was heavily influenced by thinkers such as Descartes[5], Euclid[4] and Thomas Hobbes[5], as well as theologians in the Jewish philosophical tradition such as Maimonides.[5] But his work was in many respects a departure from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Many of Spinoza's ideas continue to vex thinkers today and many of his principles, particularly regarding the emotions, have implications for modern approaches to psychology. Even top thinkers have found Spinoza's "geometrical method"[3] difficult to comprehend: Goethe admitted that he "could not really understand what Spinoza was on about most of the time."[3] His magnum opus, Ethics, contains unresolved obscurities and has a forbidding mathematical structure modeled on Euclid's geometry.[4] Spinoza's philosophy attracted believers such as Albert Einstein[6] and much intellectual attention.[7][8][9][10][11]
[edit]Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716)
Main article: Gottfried Leibniz
Leibniz was the last of the great Rationalists who contributed heavily to other fields such as mathematics. He did not develop his system, however, independently of these advances. Leibniz rejected Cartesian dualism and denied the existence of a material world. In Leibniz's view there are infinitely many simple substances, which he called "monads" (possibly taking the term from the work of Anne Conway).
Leibniz developed his theory of monads in response to both Descartes and Spinoza. In rejecting this response he was forced to arrive at his own solution. Monads are the fundamental unit of reality, according to Leibniz, constituting both inanimate and animate things. These units of reality represent the universe, though they are not subject to the laws of causality or space (which he called "well-founded phenomena"). Leibniz, therefore, introduced his principle of pre-established harmony to account for apparent causality in the world.
[edit]Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
Main article: Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant started as a traditional rationalist, having studied the rationalists Leibniz and Wolff, but after studying David Hume's works, which "awoke [him] from [his] dogmatic slumbers", he developed a distinctive and very influential rationalism of his own, which attempted to synthesise the traditional rationalist and empiricist traditions.
Kant named his branch of epistemology Transcendental Idealism, and he first laid out these views in his famous work The Critique of Pure Reason. In it he argued that there were fundamental problems with both rationalist and empiricist dogma. To the rationalists he argued, broadly, that pure reason is flawed when it goes beyond its limits and claims to know those things that are necessarily beyond the realm of all possible experience: the existence of God, free will, and the immortality of the human soul. Kant referred to these objects as "The Thing in Itself" and goes on to argue that their status as objects beyond all possible experience by definition means we cannot know them. To the empiricist he argued that while it is correct that experience is fundamentally necessary for human knowledge, reason is necessary for processing that experience into coherent thought. He therefore concludes that both reason and experience are necessary for human knowledge.
Monday, January 9, 2012
phil consti notes
Philippine Constitution - Lecture Notes
I. PRELIMINARIES
A. CONSTITUTION
1. Definition:
§ The body of rules and maxims in accordance with which the powers of sovereignty are habitually exercised.
2. Purpose:
a. To prescribe the permanent framework of a system of government;
b. To assign to the several departments their respective power and duties;
c. To establish certain first principles on which the government is founded.
3. Effect if an act is not in accordance with the constitution
§ An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is inoperative as if it had not been passed at all. (See Art 7 Civil Code)
B. STATE
1. Definition:
§ A community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of the territory, independent of external control, and possessing a government to which a great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience.
2. Distinguished from nation:
§ State is a legal or juristic concept, while nation is an ethnic or racial concept.
3. Distinguished from Government:
§ Government is merely an instrumentality of the State through which the will of the State is implemented and realized.
4. Elements of a State
a. People
§ A community of persons sufficient in number and capable of maintaining the continued existence of the community and held together by a common bond of law.
b. Territory
§ Components: Terrestrial; Fluvial; Maritime; Aerial domains
c. Government
§ The agency or instrumentality through which the will of the State is formulated, expressed, and realized.
§ Government of the Philippines is the corporate governmental entity through which the functions of the government are exercised throughout the Philippines, including, save as the contrary appears from the context, the various arms through which political authority is made effective in the Philippines, whether pertaining to the autonomous regions, the provincial, city, municipal, or barangay subdivisions or other form of local government. (Sec 2(1), Administrative Code)
d. Sovereignty
§ The supreme and uncontrollable power inherent in a State by which the State is governed.
5. Principal Forms of Government
a. As to number of persons exercising sovereign powers
1. Monarchy
§ One in which the supreme and final authority is in the hands of a single person without regard to the source of his election or the nature or duration of his tenure.
2. Aristocracy
§ One in which political power is exercised by a few privileged class.
3. Democracy
§ One in which political power is exercised by a majority of the people.
b. As to extent of powers exercised by the central or national government
1. Unitary Government
§ One in which the control of national and local affairs is exercised by the central or national government.
2. Federal Government
§ One in which powers of government are divided between two set of argans, one for national affairs and the other for local affairs, each organ being supreme in its own sphere.
c. As to relationship between the executive and the legislative branches of government
1. Parliamentary Government
§ Essential Characteristics:
a. The members of the government or cabinet or executive arm are, as a rule, simultaneously members of the legislature;
b. The government or cabinet, consisting of political leaders of the majority party or of a coalition who are also members of the legislature, is in effect a committee of legislature;
c. The government or cabinet has a pyramidal structure at apex of which is the Prime Minister or his equivalent;
d. The government or cabinet remains in power only for as long as it enjoys the support of the majority of the legislature;
e. Both government and legislature are possessed of control devices with which each can demand of the other immediate political responsibility. In the hands of the legislature is the vote of non-confidence (censure) whereby a government may be ousted. In the hands of the government is the power to dissolve the legislature and call for new elections.
2. Presidential Government
§ Its principal identifying feature is separation of powers. Legislative power is given to the Legislature; Executive power is given to a separate Executive; Judicial power is held by an independent Judiciary.
§ The system is founded on the belief that by establishing equilibrium among the three power holders, harmony will result, power will not be concentrated, and thus tyranny will be avoided.
§ Designated as such because of the prominent position which the system gives to the president as Chief Executive.
§ Philippine government is a presidential government.
C. Other Basic Concepts
1. Presidential vs. Parliamentary Government
§ The principal distinction is that in a presidential government, there is separation of executive and legislative powers; while in parliamentary government, there is fusion of both executive and legislative powers in Parliament, although the actual exercise of the executive powers is vested in a Prime Minister who is chosen by, and accountable to, Parliament.
2. Basic principles and concepts under a presidential form of government
a. Separation of Powers
§ Purpose: To prevent concentration of authority in one person or group of persons that might lead to an irreversible error or abuse in its exercise to the detriment of republican institutions; To secure action, to forestall overaction, to prevent despotism, and to obtain efficiency.
b. Principle of Blending of Powers
§ Instances when powers are not confined exclusively within one department but are assigned to or shared by several departments, e.g., enactment of general appropriations law.
c. Principle of Checks and Balances
§ This allows one department to resist encroachment upon its prerogatives or to rectify mistakes or excesses committed by the other departments, e.g., veto power of the President as check on improvident legislation.
3. State is a corporate entity; government is the institution through which the state exercises power; administration consists of the set of people currently running the institution.
§ The transitions from the 1935 Constitution to the 1973 Constitution to the 1987 Constitution involved changes of government but not of state. The transition from President Estrada to President Arroyo did not involve a change of government but only of administration.
II. THE 1987 PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION
§ Effectivity: February 2, 1987, the date of the plebiscite when the people ratified the Constitution.
A. PREAMBLE
1. Function of the Preamble in the Constitution
§ The Preamble is not a source of rights or of obligations. However, because it sets down the origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution, it is useful as an aid in the construction (interpretation) of the Constitution.
2. Origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution as set out in the Preamble
§ Its origin, or authorship, is the will of the sovereign Filipino people.
§ Its scope and purpose is to build a just and humane society and establish a government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality and peace.
B. ARTICLE I- THE NATIONAL TERRITORY
1. Binding effect in international law of the definition of national territory in the constitution
§ A constitution is a municipal law. As such, it binds only the nation promulgating it. A definition of national territory in the constitution will bind internationally only if it is supported by proof that can stand in international law. Unilateral assertions in a constitution which is municipal law, by themselves do not establish an international right to a territory.
2. The Philippine Archipelago
§ That body of water studded with islands which is delineated in the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898, as modified by the treaty of Washington of November 7, 1900, and the Treaty with Great Britain of January 2, 1930. These are the same treaties which delineated Philippine territory in the 1935 Constitution.
3. Straight Baseline Method
§ The method used to delineate the territorial sea.
§ Imaginary straight lines are drawn joining the outermost points of the outermost islands of the archipelago without departing to any appreciable extent from the general configuration of the archipelago. The waters within the baselines shall be considered internal waters; while the breadth of the territorial sea shall then be measured from the baselines.
§ 12 miles from the baseline is the territorial sea.
4. Archipelagic Doctrine
§ The waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines. This is based on the principle that an archipelago, which consists of a number of islands separated by bodies of water, should be treated as one integral unit.
5. Contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone
§ UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provides for a contiguous zone of 12 miles from the end of the territorial sea and exclusive economic zone of 200 miles from the baseline.
§ Although the contiguous zone and most of the exclusive economic zone may not, technically, be part of the territory of the State, nonetheless, the coastal State enjoys preferential rights over the marine resources found within these zones.
6. Significance of the national territory in criminal law
§ As a rule, penal laws of the Philippines are enforceable only within its territory.
§ Exception: Article 2 of the Revised Penal Code
Penal laws of the Philippines can also be enforced outside its territory against those who:
a. Should commit an offense while on a Philippine ship or airship
b. Should forge or counterfeit any coin or currency note of the Philippine Islands or obligations and securities issued by the Government of the Philippine Islands;
c. Should be liable for acts connected with the introduction into these islands of the obligations and securities mentioned in the preceding number;
d. While being public officers or employees, should commit an offense in the exercise of their functions; or
e. Should commit any of the crimes against national security and the law of nations, defined in Title One of Book Two of the Revised Penal Code.
C. ARTICLE II- DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND STATE POLICIES
1. Meaning and significance:
§ It is a statement of the basic ideological principles and policies that underlie the Constitution. As such, the provisions shed light on the meaning of the other provisions of the Constitution and they are guide for all departments of the government in the implementation of the Constitution.
2. Basic concepts
Under Section 1
a. Republican State
§ One wherein all government authority emanates from the people and is exercised by representatives chosen by the people.
b. The Philippines is not only a representative or republican state but also shares some aspects of direct democracy such as initiative and referendum.
Under Section 2
a. The kind of war renounced is aggressive, not, defensive war.
b. Relate to Section 23, Article VI
§ While the Constitution gives to the legislature the power to declare the existence of war and to enact all measures to support the war, the actual power to make war is lodged in the executive power. The executive power, when necessary, may make war even in the absence of a declaration of war.
§ War being a question of actualities, the President was bound to meet it in the shape it presented itself, without waiting for Congress to baptize it with a name; and no name given to it by him or them could change the fact.
c. As applied in most countries, the doctrine of incorporation dictates that rules of international law are given equal standing with, and are not superior to, national legislative enactments.
d. Some principles of international law acknowledged by the Court as part of the law of the land:
1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
§ It would be a violation of said international law to detain an alien for an unreasonable length of time since no vessel from his country is willing to take him. (Mejoff v Director of Prisons, 90 Phil 70)
2. The right of a country to establish military commissions to try war criminals. (Kuroda v Jalandoni, 83 Phil 171)
3. Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals
§ Involves the use of early warning devices.
4. Duty to protect the premises of embassies and legations.
Under Section 3
a. The principle of civilian supremacy is institutionalized by the provision which makes the President, a civilian and precisely a civilian, commander-in-chief of the armed forces. (See Section 18, Article 7)
§ But this does not mean that civilian officials are superior to military officials. Civilian officials are superior to military officials only when a law makes them so.
Under Section 4
§ Take note of the prime duty of the government.
Under Section 6
§ To be discussed under the Bill of Rights (Article III, Sec 5)
Under Section 10
a. Meaning of Social Justice
§ The equalization of economic, political, and social opportunities with special emphasis on the duty of the state to tilt the balance of social forces by favoring the disadvantaged in life.
§ How promotion of social justice carried out in all phases of national development – See Article XIII
Under Section 12
a. Legal meaning and purpose of the protection that is guaranteed for the unborn
§ This is not an assertion that the life of the unborn is placed exactly on the level of the life of the mother. When necessary to save the life of the mother, the life of the unborn may be sacrificed; but not when the purpose is merely to save the mother from emotional suffering, for which other remedies must be sought, or to spare the child from a life of poverty, which can be attended to by welfare institutions.
Under Section 14
a. This provision is so worded as not to automatically dislocate the Civil Code and the civil law jurisprudence on the subject. What it does is to give impetus to the removal, through statutes, of existing inequalities. The general idea is for the law to ignore sex where sex is not a relevant factor in determining rights and duties. Nor is the provision meant to ignore customs and traditions.
Under Section 15 and 16
a. The right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology is an enforceable right.
Under Section 17
a. This does not mean that the government is not free to balance the demands of education against other competing and urgent demands
Under Section 18
a. “Labor as a primary social economic force” means that human factor has primacy over non-human factors in production.
§ Rights of workers – See Art XIII
Under Section 26
a. The purpose of this provision is to give substance to the desire for equalization of political opportunities. However, the definition of political dynasty is left to the legislature.
Under Section 28
§ Take note of the policy of full public disclosure.
I. PRELIMINARIES
A. CONSTITUTION
1. Definition:
§ The body of rules and maxims in accordance with which the powers of sovereignty are habitually exercised.
2. Purpose:
a. To prescribe the permanent framework of a system of government;
b. To assign to the several departments their respective power and duties;
c. To establish certain first principles on which the government is founded.
3. Effect if an act is not in accordance with the constitution
§ An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is inoperative as if it had not been passed at all. (See Art 7 Civil Code)
B. STATE
1. Definition:
§ A community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of the territory, independent of external control, and possessing a government to which a great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience.
2. Distinguished from nation:
§ State is a legal or juristic concept, while nation is an ethnic or racial concept.
3. Distinguished from Government:
§ Government is merely an instrumentality of the State through which the will of the State is implemented and realized.
4. Elements of a State
a. People
§ A community of persons sufficient in number and capable of maintaining the continued existence of the community and held together by a common bond of law.
b. Territory
§ Components: Terrestrial; Fluvial; Maritime; Aerial domains
c. Government
§ The agency or instrumentality through which the will of the State is formulated, expressed, and realized.
§ Government of the Philippines is the corporate governmental entity through which the functions of the government are exercised throughout the Philippines, including, save as the contrary appears from the context, the various arms through which political authority is made effective in the Philippines, whether pertaining to the autonomous regions, the provincial, city, municipal, or barangay subdivisions or other form of local government. (Sec 2(1), Administrative Code)
d. Sovereignty
§ The supreme and uncontrollable power inherent in a State by which the State is governed.
5. Principal Forms of Government
a. As to number of persons exercising sovereign powers
1. Monarchy
§ One in which the supreme and final authority is in the hands of a single person without regard to the source of his election or the nature or duration of his tenure.
2. Aristocracy
§ One in which political power is exercised by a few privileged class.
3. Democracy
§ One in which political power is exercised by a majority of the people.
b. As to extent of powers exercised by the central or national government
1. Unitary Government
§ One in which the control of national and local affairs is exercised by the central or national government.
2. Federal Government
§ One in which powers of government are divided between two set of argans, one for national affairs and the other for local affairs, each organ being supreme in its own sphere.
c. As to relationship between the executive and the legislative branches of government
1. Parliamentary Government
§ Essential Characteristics:
a. The members of the government or cabinet or executive arm are, as a rule, simultaneously members of the legislature;
b. The government or cabinet, consisting of political leaders of the majority party or of a coalition who are also members of the legislature, is in effect a committee of legislature;
c. The government or cabinet has a pyramidal structure at apex of which is the Prime Minister or his equivalent;
d. The government or cabinet remains in power only for as long as it enjoys the support of the majority of the legislature;
e. Both government and legislature are possessed of control devices with which each can demand of the other immediate political responsibility. In the hands of the legislature is the vote of non-confidence (censure) whereby a government may be ousted. In the hands of the government is the power to dissolve the legislature and call for new elections.
2. Presidential Government
§ Its principal identifying feature is separation of powers. Legislative power is given to the Legislature; Executive power is given to a separate Executive; Judicial power is held by an independent Judiciary.
§ The system is founded on the belief that by establishing equilibrium among the three power holders, harmony will result, power will not be concentrated, and thus tyranny will be avoided.
§ Designated as such because of the prominent position which the system gives to the president as Chief Executive.
§ Philippine government is a presidential government.
C. Other Basic Concepts
1. Presidential vs. Parliamentary Government
§ The principal distinction is that in a presidential government, there is separation of executive and legislative powers; while in parliamentary government, there is fusion of both executive and legislative powers in Parliament, although the actual exercise of the executive powers is vested in a Prime Minister who is chosen by, and accountable to, Parliament.
2. Basic principles and concepts under a presidential form of government
a. Separation of Powers
§ Purpose: To prevent concentration of authority in one person or group of persons that might lead to an irreversible error or abuse in its exercise to the detriment of republican institutions; To secure action, to forestall overaction, to prevent despotism, and to obtain efficiency.
b. Principle of Blending of Powers
§ Instances when powers are not confined exclusively within one department but are assigned to or shared by several departments, e.g., enactment of general appropriations law.
c. Principle of Checks and Balances
§ This allows one department to resist encroachment upon its prerogatives or to rectify mistakes or excesses committed by the other departments, e.g., veto power of the President as check on improvident legislation.
3. State is a corporate entity; government is the institution through which the state exercises power; administration consists of the set of people currently running the institution.
§ The transitions from the 1935 Constitution to the 1973 Constitution to the 1987 Constitution involved changes of government but not of state. The transition from President Estrada to President Arroyo did not involve a change of government but only of administration.
II. THE 1987 PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION
§ Effectivity: February 2, 1987, the date of the plebiscite when the people ratified the Constitution.
A. PREAMBLE
1. Function of the Preamble in the Constitution
§ The Preamble is not a source of rights or of obligations. However, because it sets down the origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution, it is useful as an aid in the construction (interpretation) of the Constitution.
2. Origin, scope, and purpose of the Constitution as set out in the Preamble
§ Its origin, or authorship, is the will of the sovereign Filipino people.
§ Its scope and purpose is to build a just and humane society and establish a government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality and peace.
B. ARTICLE I- THE NATIONAL TERRITORY
1. Binding effect in international law of the definition of national territory in the constitution
§ A constitution is a municipal law. As such, it binds only the nation promulgating it. A definition of national territory in the constitution will bind internationally only if it is supported by proof that can stand in international law. Unilateral assertions in a constitution which is municipal law, by themselves do not establish an international right to a territory.
2. The Philippine Archipelago
§ That body of water studded with islands which is delineated in the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898, as modified by the treaty of Washington of November 7, 1900, and the Treaty with Great Britain of January 2, 1930. These are the same treaties which delineated Philippine territory in the 1935 Constitution.
3. Straight Baseline Method
§ The method used to delineate the territorial sea.
§ Imaginary straight lines are drawn joining the outermost points of the outermost islands of the archipelago without departing to any appreciable extent from the general configuration of the archipelago. The waters within the baselines shall be considered internal waters; while the breadth of the territorial sea shall then be measured from the baselines.
§ 12 miles from the baseline is the territorial sea.
4. Archipelagic Doctrine
§ The waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines. This is based on the principle that an archipelago, which consists of a number of islands separated by bodies of water, should be treated as one integral unit.
5. Contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone
§ UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provides for a contiguous zone of 12 miles from the end of the territorial sea and exclusive economic zone of 200 miles from the baseline.
§ Although the contiguous zone and most of the exclusive economic zone may not, technically, be part of the territory of the State, nonetheless, the coastal State enjoys preferential rights over the marine resources found within these zones.
6. Significance of the national territory in criminal law
§ As a rule, penal laws of the Philippines are enforceable only within its territory.
§ Exception: Article 2 of the Revised Penal Code
Penal laws of the Philippines can also be enforced outside its territory against those who:
a. Should commit an offense while on a Philippine ship or airship
b. Should forge or counterfeit any coin or currency note of the Philippine Islands or obligations and securities issued by the Government of the Philippine Islands;
c. Should be liable for acts connected with the introduction into these islands of the obligations and securities mentioned in the preceding number;
d. While being public officers or employees, should commit an offense in the exercise of their functions; or
e. Should commit any of the crimes against national security and the law of nations, defined in Title One of Book Two of the Revised Penal Code.
C. ARTICLE II- DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND STATE POLICIES
1. Meaning and significance:
§ It is a statement of the basic ideological principles and policies that underlie the Constitution. As such, the provisions shed light on the meaning of the other provisions of the Constitution and they are guide for all departments of the government in the implementation of the Constitution.
2. Basic concepts
Under Section 1
a. Republican State
§ One wherein all government authority emanates from the people and is exercised by representatives chosen by the people.
b. The Philippines is not only a representative or republican state but also shares some aspects of direct democracy such as initiative and referendum.
Under Section 2
a. The kind of war renounced is aggressive, not, defensive war.
b. Relate to Section 23, Article VI
§ While the Constitution gives to the legislature the power to declare the existence of war and to enact all measures to support the war, the actual power to make war is lodged in the executive power. The executive power, when necessary, may make war even in the absence of a declaration of war.
§ War being a question of actualities, the President was bound to meet it in the shape it presented itself, without waiting for Congress to baptize it with a name; and no name given to it by him or them could change the fact.
c. As applied in most countries, the doctrine of incorporation dictates that rules of international law are given equal standing with, and are not superior to, national legislative enactments.
d. Some principles of international law acknowledged by the Court as part of the law of the land:
1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
§ It would be a violation of said international law to detain an alien for an unreasonable length of time since no vessel from his country is willing to take him. (Mejoff v Director of Prisons, 90 Phil 70)
2. The right of a country to establish military commissions to try war criminals. (Kuroda v Jalandoni, 83 Phil 171)
3. Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals
§ Involves the use of early warning devices.
4. Duty to protect the premises of embassies and legations.
Under Section 3
a. The principle of civilian supremacy is institutionalized by the provision which makes the President, a civilian and precisely a civilian, commander-in-chief of the armed forces. (See Section 18, Article 7)
§ But this does not mean that civilian officials are superior to military officials. Civilian officials are superior to military officials only when a law makes them so.
Under Section 4
§ Take note of the prime duty of the government.
Under Section 6
§ To be discussed under the Bill of Rights (Article III, Sec 5)
Under Section 10
a. Meaning of Social Justice
§ The equalization of economic, political, and social opportunities with special emphasis on the duty of the state to tilt the balance of social forces by favoring the disadvantaged in life.
§ How promotion of social justice carried out in all phases of national development – See Article XIII
Under Section 12
a. Legal meaning and purpose of the protection that is guaranteed for the unborn
§ This is not an assertion that the life of the unborn is placed exactly on the level of the life of the mother. When necessary to save the life of the mother, the life of the unborn may be sacrificed; but not when the purpose is merely to save the mother from emotional suffering, for which other remedies must be sought, or to spare the child from a life of poverty, which can be attended to by welfare institutions.
Under Section 14
a. This provision is so worded as not to automatically dislocate the Civil Code and the civil law jurisprudence on the subject. What it does is to give impetus to the removal, through statutes, of existing inequalities. The general idea is for the law to ignore sex where sex is not a relevant factor in determining rights and duties. Nor is the provision meant to ignore customs and traditions.
Under Section 15 and 16
a. The right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology is an enforceable right.
Under Section 17
a. This does not mean that the government is not free to balance the demands of education against other competing and urgent demands
Under Section 18
a. “Labor as a primary social economic force” means that human factor has primacy over non-human factors in production.
§ Rights of workers – See Art XIII
Under Section 26
a. The purpose of this provision is to give substance to the desire for equalization of political opportunities. However, the definition of political dynasty is left to the legislature.
Under Section 28
§ Take note of the policy of full public disclosure.
Friday, January 6, 2012
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