JOSELLE M.

CORTEZ May 7, 2023

STUDENT NO. 202240209

LEGAL RESEARCH & WRITING – MIDTERM EXAM

What is the definition of legal writing? What are the fundamentals of legal writing? Write down the
importance and purpose of legal research and writing. (20 POINTS)

As stated in the Legal Method Essential book of Gatmaytan, legal method goes by many names.
In the United States It is sometimes called legal writing, lawyering skills, or legal process. The design and
structure may change among law schools but generally the students are taught the basics of legal
analysis – how to read and think about the law, how to do legal research, and how to do legal writing.
Legal methods differ in different legal systems. Within these different systems they are taught in
different ways and in different places, either as theory or the practice of law. In the University of the
Philippines, College of Law, the course was taught in the past as "Legal Method and Research" and "Use
of Law Books." Today, the course is described briefly as "an introduction to legal analysis, research
techniques, rules of legal construction, and other aspects of the legal process.
Legal Method is not concerned with the principles, doctrines and rules comprising substantive
law in a specific field. It concerns itself with the methodology used, principally by courts to create,
elaborate, and apply that substance. It is likened to the tools and the training needed to use these tools.

In the Legal Writing book of Sugcang, the importance of legal writing is that for lawyers, the
main tools are the remedies provided under the law. Yes, a lawyer of a prospective litigant needs to be
attentive to ensure that legal remedies have not prescribed (the equivalent of expiration among medical
drugs). But more than that, a lawyer should ensure that in one's submissions, words are chosen or not
chosen with surgical precision. As United States Court of Appeals Chief Judge Elijah Prettyman would put
it, "the lawyer's greatest weapon is clarity, and its whetstone is succinctness." The challenge for lawyers
is to say what one means. A lawyer (or a law student) must be able to turn one's abstract thought
accurately into visible written words. Knowledge of the substantive law and mastery of the procedures to
enforce the law may become useless when a lawyer is unable to properly communicate them, especially
in the written form. Similarly, correct understanding of the law is insufficient to make a law student or a
law graduate pass a final examination or bar examination, respectively, when it cannot be articulated.
Legal writing is, therefore, important.

The purpose of legal research and writing question appears to be settled by the enactment of
Republic Act No. 7662 or the "Legal Education Reform Act of 1993." Section 3(a)(1) of this law expressly
provides for the statutory goals of legal education. Clearly, the first and foremost objective is "to prepare
students for the practice of law."

In the book of Legal Writing by Sugcang, et al. The fundaments of legal writing discussed how the
delivery of legal ideas, particularly in legal writing, relies heavily on the role of organization and some
standard principles. Legal analytical thinking requires organization skills in writing and constructing
arguments, where words, phrases, sentence structures are properly arranged to achieve logic,
coherence, readability, and impact. Fundamentals of legal writing have two parts, first is the organization
of legal writing and second is the principles of legal writing.

The Organization of legal writing tackles about:

a. Elements of good organization include being logical sequential while providing good
division of the topics to be discuss. Being logical means that information is presented in
a pattern of carefully arranged ideas, with the layout of content addressing one point at
a time. On the other hand, being sequential allows readers to make sense of how each
event unfolds.
b. General concept in outlining. Outlines provide the skeletal foundation. They also serve
as effective guides in detailing logical development of ideas-advancing from general to
specific statements then eventually ending in a conclusion or recommendation. There
are three types of outlines: (a) topic outlines, where words and phrases are used as
entries; (b) sentence outlines, composed of complete sentences; and (c) paragraph
outlines, where paragraphs are used as entries.
c. Outlining redefined in case digest. In legal writing, outlining may also exist in a different
form, as in case briefs where the most important details in a case a carefully ordered and
summarized. Most famously known as case digests, outlining in this structure is usually
divided into three parts – facts, issues and the ruling. In most cases, additional parts are
included, just like the nature of the case before writing the facts and the doctrine of the
case usually written after the ruling.

The principles of legal writing talks about the quality in the writing which have to have:
a. Clarity. Clarity implies emphasizing a specific message or goal at a time, rather than
trying to achieve too much at once. The steps in achieving clarity are to: omit
unnecessary words; avoid the use of jargons; make the proper word choice; practice the
use of active voice; and use strong, precise verbs.
b. Conciseness. Concise writing requires specific words, where each word in a sentence
function to add, describe, or modify the word before and after it. Being concise,
therefore, results in communicating what you want to convey in least possible words. In
effect, the main message is highlighted by avoiding the use of excessive and needless
words. This type of communicative strategy will make writing more appealing and
comprehensible while decreasing the redundancy of the words.
c. Correctness. Correctness refers to the adherence to grammatical rules, such as verb
tenses and modals, as well as ensuring the same form a function for parallel ideas.
d. Coherence. Central to the role of coherence in legal writing are the unity of principles,
the relevance of description and the number of supportive chains that exist among the
sentences.
e. Cogency. Cogency is a principle in legal writing that provides a plausible rationale for
ideas. By definition, an argument is cogent if it is strong and true. The strength of cogent
arguments is determined by this: whether they are backed up by true premises, and
when their likelihood or probability is very high. A way to apply cogency in legal writing,
that is, to establish the truth of the argument’s premise, is to support your arguments
with related jurisprudence and decisions arising from such.
What are the stages of legal writing? Explain what takes places in each stage of writing. (10 POINTS)
What are the sources of law? (20 POINTS)

In the Fundamentals of Legal Writing book by Abad, legal writing has two stages. The first is pre-
work and second is write-up.

The First Stage is Pre-work. Here, you are at the beginning of your writing assignment and are
looking at the facts and evidence of the case as they are made available to you. If it is a new case, the
facts might come from interviews of the persons involved in the problem or from related documents that
require sorting. These materials would be absolutely raw. Quite often, the dates when the important
events took place are mixed up. On the other hand, if it is a case that has undergone trial, you might be
looking at the transcript of the testimonies of witnesses and the documentary exhibits presented in the
case. Pre-work is a process.
Whatever your assignment might be, your pre-work would be inadequate unless you go through
at least five levels of efforts:
1. Establishing where the legal dispute lies in the case;
2. Discovering its relevant facts;
3. Knowing the laws or rules that apply to it;
4. Identifying the issue or issues that you would address; and
5. Roughing out the arguments that you would use.

The Second Stage is Write-up. Here, having all the ideas you need concerning your legal writing
assignment, your task is to put flesh, color, and shape to them. You will now transform the sketches and
outlines you produced during pre-work into a full draft of the paper required of you––a pleading, a legal
opinion, a petition, a comment, a memorandum, a position paper, or even a decision. Editing and
rewriting will complete the write-up stage.

In the Philippine Legal Research By Milagros Santos-Ong, There are two primary sources of the
law: statutes and jurisprudence.
Statutes or Statutory Law: Statutes are defined as the written enactment of the will of the
legislative branch of the government rendered authentic by certain prescribed forms or solemnities are
more also known as enactment of congress. Generally, they consist of two types, the Constitution and
legislative enactments. In the Philippines, statutory law includes constitutions, treaties, statutes proper
or legislative enactments, municipal charters, municipal legislation, court rules, administrative rules and
orders, legislative rules and issuance of government agencies including government-controlled
corporations.
Jurisprudence or Case Law: Cases decided or written opinions by courts and by persons
performing judicial functions. Also included are all rulings in administrative and legislative tribunals such
as decisions made by the Presidential or Senate or House Electoral Tribunals. Only decisions of the House
of Representatives Electoral Tribunal are available in print as House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal
Reports, volume 1 (January 28, 1988-October 3, 1990) to present. For Muslim law, the primary sources
of Shariah are Quran, Sunnah, Ijma and Qiyas. Jainal D. Razul in his book Commentaries and
Jurisprudence on the Muslin Law of the Philippines (1984) further stated there are new sources of
Muslim law, which some jurists rejected such as Istihsan or juristic preference; Al-Masalih, Al Mursalah
or public interest; Istidlal (custom) and Istishab. (deduction based on continuity or permanence).
Classification of Legal Sources by Authorities: “Authority is that which may be cited in support of an
action, theory or hypothesis.” Primary Authority is the only authority that is binding on the courts. These
are the two sources of law, which includes the Constitution, legislative statutes or those passed by
Congress, decisions of the Supreme Court, appellate courts, lower courts and other quasi-judicial
agencies, Executive issuances or Presidential issuances, treaties entered into by the Philippines,
ordinances, rules and regulations of government agencies. They are the actual law or those promulgated
by the three branches of government: Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. The legislature promulgates
statutes, namely: Acts, Commonwealth Acts, Republic Acts, and Batas Pambansa. The Executive
promulgates presidential issuances (Presidential Decrees, Executive Orders, Memorandum Circular,
Administrative Orders, Proclamations, etc.), rules and regulations through its various departments,
bureaus and agencies. The Judiciary promulgates judicial doctrines embodied in decisions. We however
need to clarify that the Presidential Decrees or law issued by President Ferdinand E. Marcos during
Martial Law and Executive Orders issued by Aquino President Corazon C. Aquino before the opening
Congress in July 1987 can be classified as legislativeexecutive acts, there being no legislature during
these two periods.

Primary Authority or sources may be further subdivided into the following:

Mandatory primary authority is law created by the jurisdiction in which the law operates
like the Philippines;
Persuasive mandatory authority is law created by other jurisdictions, but which have
persuasive value to our courts e.g. Spanish and American laws and jurisprudence.

Secondary authority or sources are commentaries or books, treatise, writings, journal articles
that explain, discuss or comment on primary authorities. The Secondary Sources are the unofficial
sources and generally referred to as those commercially or institutionally published in print or online.

Should lawmakers replace the Philippine Republic with a Philippine Federal System of Government?
Explain your answer by discussing the history of the legal system of the country and an assessment of
present legal system of the Philippines. (50 POINTS)

In my own opinion the lawmakers should not replace our present government system to
federalism. I believe in our 1987 constitution preamble stating that We, the sovereign Filipino people,
imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order 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, do
ordain and promulgate this Constitution.

This attest that our government system is for the purpose of maintaining the Filipino citizen as its
sovereign. Our present government system also embodies 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.
Why am I against federalism? What is federalism?
Federalism, mode of political organization that unites separate states or other polities within an
overarching political system in a way that allows each to maintain its own integrity. Federal systems do
this by requiring that basic policies be made and implemented through negotiation in some form, so
that all the members can share in making and executing decisions. The political principles that animate
federal systems emphasize the primacy of bargaining and negotiated coordination among several power
centres; they stress the virtues of dispersed power centres as a means for safeguarding individual and
local liberties.1

Here, if our present government was replaced to federalism, we cannot promote the unity of
our country because of the separation of states, and since the states will have its own policies where
does the responsibility of state governments end and where does the responsibility of the national
government begin? Unless these are very clearly stated in the amended Constitution, ambiguities may
arise, leading to conflict and confusion. For instance, in times of disaster, what is the division of
responsibilities between state and national governments?2

Furthermore, we’ve come up to our present government system because of our history of being
captivated by other countries. Our hearts are built to be united as one and to function as all are equal.

Our legal system started as a colonial government system established by Spain in 1952.
Generally, the Spanish version of Roman law replaced many indigenous regulations, but to avert native
resistance, the colonial government permitted indigenous peoples to retain their laws as long as they
did not conflict with Spanish traditions.3

The Americans initially permitted the Spanish court system to remain essentially untouched:
Filipino justices of the peace presided over the local courts but the highest court of appeals was the
United States Supreme Court instead of the Spanish Council of the Indies. Later, the Philippine
Commission passed “The Judiciary Act” which abolished the Audiencia and the courts of first instance. It
established the Supreme Court, Courts of First Instance, Municipal Courts, and Courts of the Justice of
the Peace, abrogating all Spanish courts. It is said that the most important single importation of the
Americans was the introduction of a judicial system modeled in all its essential characteristics on the
judicial system of the United States.4

The Americans attempted to train the Filipinos to govern themselves, working to create a
version of the American political structure in Asia. Filipinos elected delegates to a convention that
drafted a constitution approved by the United States President, which went into effect in 1935. It was
designed to prepare the country for an independent Republic of the Philippines in ten years time. The
1935 Constitution continued in effect for 37 years until former President Ferdinand Marcos declared
martial law on September 21, 1972.5

The Constitutional Commission convened on June 2, 1986 with members from various fields
possessing divergent ideological beliefs. In a matter of months, it held public hearings, regional
consultations, and spent two months on floor debates. The Commission finished a draft by October 15
and the plebiscite for the constitution’s ratification was later held in February 1987. 6
 Our legal system is built in the determination of our fellow Filipinos with the help of the
members of the constitutional commission to avoid the history of being held captive by the dictatorial
and colonizers. We built this government to follow the regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality,
and peace.

When was the ASEAN founded? List down the member of states of ASEAN.(5 POINTS)

On 8 August 1967, five leaders – the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand – sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs
building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it – Adam Malik of
Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of
Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand – would subsequently be hailed as the Founding Fathers of
probably the most successful inter-governmental organization in the developing world today. And the
document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration. 7
ASEAN Member States8
Brunei Darussalam Commencement Date:7 January 1984
Cambodia Commencement Date: 30 April 1999
Indonesia Commencement Date: 8 August 1967
Lao PDR Commencement Date: 23 July 1997
Malaysia Commencement Date: 8 August 1967
Myanmar Commencement Date: 23 July 1997
Philippines Commencement Date: 8 August 1967
Singapore Commencement Date: 8 August 1967
Thailand Commencement Date: 8 August 1967
Viet Nam Commencement Date: 28 July 1995

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1
https://www.britannica.com/topic/federalism
2
https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/120166-federalism-pros-cons-explainer/
3
Legal Method Essentials 4.0, Dante B. Gatmaytan, p. 12
4
Legal Method Essentials 4.0, Dante B. Gatmaytan, p. 14
5
Legal Method Essentials 4.0, Dante B. Gatmaytan, p. 14
6
Legal Method Essentials 4.0, Dante B. Gatmaytan, p. 16
7
https://asean.org/the-founding-of-asean/
8
https://asean.org/member-states/