LEGAL CITATION

Reference: Legal Research by Santos-Ong, Milagros and the website

WHY IS PROPER CITATION IMPORTANT?

IN ORDER NOT TO COMMIT PLAGIARISM.

Plagiarism, a term not defined by statute, has a popular or common definition.
To plagiarize, says Webster, is "to steal and pass off as one’s own" the ideas or words of another. Stealing
implies malicious taking.
Black’s Law Dictionary, the world’s leading English law dictionary quoted by the Court in its decision, defines
plagiarism as the "deliberate and knowing presentation of another person's original ideas or creative expressions
as one’s own.”
The presentation of another person’s ideas as one’s own must be deliberate or premeditated—a taking with ill
intent.
 (IN THE MATTER OF THE CHARGES OF PLAGIARISM, ETC., AGAINST ASSOCIATE JUSTICE
MARIANO C. DEL CASTILLO, A.M. No. 10-7-17-SC, February 8, 2011)
 Plagiarism in the academe v. Plagiarism
in the judiciary

Plagiarism in the academe- intent is not material

 Original scholarship is highly valued in the academe and rightly so. A college thesis,
for instance, should contain dissertations embodying results of original research,
substantiating a specific view. This must be so since the writing is intended to earn
for the student an academic degree, honor, or distinction. He earns no credit nor
deserves it who takes the research of others, copies their dissertations, and proclaims
these as his own. There should be no question that a cheat deserves neither reward
nor sympathy.
 But the policy adopted by schools of disregarding the element of malicious intent
found in dictionaries is evidently more in the nature of establishing what evidence is
 Plagiarism in the academe v. Plagiarism
in the judiciary

Plagiarism in the judiciary

In contrast, decisions of courts are not written to earn merit, accolade, or prize as an original piece of work or
art. Deciding disputes is a service rendered by the government for the public good. Judges issue decisions to
resolve everyday conflicts involving people of flesh and blood who ache for speedy justice or juridical beings
which have rights and obligations in law that need to be protected. The interest of society in written decisions is
not that they are originally crafted but that they are fair and correct in the context of the particular disputes
involved. Justice, not originality, form, and style, is the object of every decision of a court of law.
To paraphrase Bast and Samuels, while the academic publishing model is based on the originality of the
writer’s thesis, the judicial system is based on the doctrine of stare decisis, which encourages courts to cite
historical legal data, precedents, and related studies in their decisions. The judge is not expected to produce
original scholarship in every respect. The strength of a decision lies in the soundness and general acceptance of
the precedents and long held legal opinions it draws from.
The tendency to copy in law is readily explicable. In law accuracy of words is everything.
PHILIPPINE LEGAL CITATION

Considering all the sources of Philippine legal information

from the 1900s to present, uniform standard of Philippine
citation is needed for clarity and consistency. Each
individual has his own style and preference in legal
research and writing.

- We will discuss the manner of citation recommended by

Santos-Ong, Milagros
 CONSTITUTION

Reference to the article, section and the paragraph. The

year is placed in parenthesis
• Const. (1935). Art. VIII, Sec. 1
• Const. (1973). Art. X, Sec. 1
• Const, (1987), Art. VIII, Sec. 2
 STATUTES

IF TAKEN FROM THE PRINTED SOURCE:

• For Laws 1901-1934: Act No. 136 (1901)
• Commonwealth Acts (1935-1945): Com. Act No. 35 (1935)
• Republic Acts (1946-1972, 1987-present): Rep. Act No. 88 (1946)
• Presidential Decrees (September 21, 1972 – February 1986): Pres. Decree No. 442
(1972)
• Batas Pambansa (January 1979- February 1, 1986): Batas Pambana Blg. 129 (1980)

IF FROM AN ELECTRONIC SOURCE

• Rep. Act No. 3019 (1960) (last visited August 29, 2012)
The Ombudsman ((last visited August 29, 2012).
The Central Bank (last visited August 29, 2012).
 TREATY

Cited by the name of the treaty and the date when the treaty was signed
IF FROM PRINTED SOURCE:
Philippines Extradition Treaty with the United States, signed November 13, 1994.
8 PTS 978.
o 8 cited in the source represents the volume number of the Philippine
Treaty Series and 978 is the page where the treaty was printed.
IF FROM ELECTRONIC SOURCE:
Philippines Extradition Treaty with the United States, signed November 13, 1994.
(the website).(last visited January 02, 2020).
Executive/Presidential Issuances

 number of the issuance and followed by the date of issuance. The date is
important for each year, the number starts with the first number (No. 1).

 Executive Orders: Exec. Order No. 200 (1986).

 Proclamations: Proc. No. 1081 (1972)
 Administrative Orders: Adm. Order No. 200 (2005)
Administrative Rules and Regulations

: the abbreviation of the name of each agency, followed by the name of the specific
rule or regulation. It is important to indicate the year in parenthesis for each year,
the number of the rules and regulations start with the first number (No.1).
• Administrative Order No. 1 promulgated by the Department of Energy on
January 5, 2006 is thus cited as:
DOE Adm. Order No. 1 (2006).
• This is the citation for Supreme Court Administrative Order No. 1 adopted
in 2005:
SC Adm. Order No. 1 (2005).
NOTE: Abbreviations as to the names of the Different Government Agencies are
through the Acronyms of the Agencies, which is also reflected on their website
address.
Ordinances

name of the city, municipality or the province, followed by the ordinance number
and the date.

• City ordinance No. 1 of the city of Manila passed on June 21, 2004 is
cited as:

Manila Ordinance No. 1, June 21, 2004.

SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

The citation of Court decisions depends upon whether the printed court reports
are a primary or a secondary source.

Those found in primary sources such as the Philippine Reports or the Official
Gazette are cited by the family name of the parties, the volume number, Court
Report title, page of the court report, and the year of promulgation in
parenthesis. For example:
• Ong v. People, 399 Phil. 686 (2000) [The Ong case is found in volume 399
of the Philippine Reports page 686]
• Ong v. People, 399 Phil. 686, 688 (2000) [686 is the page where the case
started and 688 is the specific page where the doctrine used is found.]
 SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Those found in secondary sources such as the Supreme Court Reports Annotated (SCRA) are cited by family name of the
parties, case no. (G.R. No.), date of promulgation, volume number of the court reports and page. For example:
• Ong v. People, G.R. No. 139006, November 27, 2000, 346 SCRA 117.
The case names are cited using the surnames of the parties. Exception to the general rule of using family names are
Islamic, Chinese names, which are cited in full. Those with Christian first names follow the general rule. For example:
• Sy Chin v. Tang Ching Heng & Co., 399 Phil. 442 (2000).
When the party is a company, agency corporation, etc., the complete name must be included. For example:
• Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority v. Chiongbian, 399 Phil. 695 (2000).
When the party is the Government of the Philippines, the court decisions are cited as follows:
• Government v. ________, date of promulgation, Source
• Commonwealth v. ________, date of promulgation, Source
• Republic v. ______, date of promulgation, Source
In criminal cases wherein the case if filed for the People of the Philippines, it is cited as: People v. ______, date of
promulgation, Source
 SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Citation of Electronic Sources

• Ong v. People, G.R. No. 139006, November 27, 2000 . URL. (last visited January 2, 2020)
Administrative decisions: Cited by the name of the agency (abbreviated form), case number and date of
promulgation. For example:
• Santos v. Dizon, CSC Adm. Case No. 12345, January 6, 2006. [Civil Service Commission Decision]
Xxx Plagiarism, a term not defined by statute, has a popular or common definition. To plagiarize, says
Webster, is "to steal and pass off as one’s own" the ideas or words of another. Stealing implies malicious taking.
Black’s Law Dictionary, the world’s leading English law dictionary quoted by the Court in its decision, defines
plagiarism as the "deliberate and knowing presentation of another person's original ideas or creative expressions
as one’s own.“ The presentation of another person’s ideas as one’s own must be deliberate or premeditated—a
taking with ill intent.
Xxx To paraphrase Bast and Samuels, while the academic publishing model is based on the originality of the
writer’s thesis, the judicial system is based on the doctrine of stare decisis, which encourages courts to cite
historical legal data, precedents, and related studies in their decisions. The judge is not expected to produce
original scholarship in every respect. The strength of a decision lies in the soundness and general acceptance of
the precedents and long held legal opinions it draws from. (IN THE MATTER OF THE CHARGES OF PLAGIARISM,
ETC., AGAINST ASSOCIATE JUSTICE MARIANO C. DEL CASTILLO, A.M. No. 10-7-17-SC, February 8, 2011) .
(Emphasis supplied.)
 REPEATING CITATIONS

Supra - to identify a material previously cited on the same or preceding page. It

should not be used to refer to statutes or constitutions
Concepcion v. Paredes, 42 Phil. 599, 607 (1921)
Concepcion v. Paredes, supra
Concepcion v. Paredes, supra at 601
Concepcion v. Paredes, supra note 1, at 601

2. Id - when citing the immediately preceding footnote that has only one authority
1 Concepcion v. Paredes, 42 Phil. 599, 607 (1921)
2 Id.
3 Id. at 601
 What's a Bibliography?

A bibliography is a list of all of the sources you have used (whether referenced or not) in the process of researching your
work. In general, a bibliography should include:

the authors' names

the titles of the works
the names and locations of the companies that published your copies of the sources
the dates your copies were published
the page numbers of your sources (if they are part of multi-source volumes)
Annotated Bibliography-
An annotated bibliography is the same as a bibliography with one important difference: in an annotated bibliography, the
bibliographic information is followed by a brief description of the content, quality, and usefulness of the source.
1. IBID. (IN THE SAME PLACE)
One widely used Latin term in academic referencing is “ibid.” This is short for ibidem, which means “in the same
place.” It is therefore used for repeat citations:
1. Danielle Ward, Any Questions? (London: DTRT Publishing, 2017), p. 30.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., p. 39-41.
Here, for example, we have three footnotes that all cite the same source. We give the full source information in
the first footnote. After that, we use “ibid.” in the next two footnotes to show that we’re citing the same source
without having to write the publication information out again.
In the second footnote, we use “ibid.” by itself to cite the exact same page as the previous citation. But in the
third, we also give page numbers to show that we’re citing a different part of the same text.

2. LOC. CIT. AND OP. CIT. (REPEAT CITATIONS)

The Latin terms “loc. cit.” and “op. cit.” are also used for repeat citations, but each one has a specific function.
“Loc. cit.” is an abbreviation of loco citato, which means “in the place cited.” It is used when citing the exact same
part of a source as in a previous citation:
1. Danielle Ward, Any Questions? (London: DTRT Publishing, 2017), p. 30.
2. Loc. cit.
Since it is only used for the same part of a text, you never need to give a page number with “loc. cit.”
Meanwhile, “op. cit.” is short for opere citato, which translates as “in the work cited.” We use this when referring
to a different part of the cited text:
1. Michael Legge, Precious Little (New York: Pod Books, 2015), p. 198.
2. Op. cit., p. 102.

Source: https://getproofed.com/writing-tips/ibid-latin-terms-referencing/. Last visited on April 9, 2021.

With these terms, if you cite other texts before returning to the one you
are citing again, you should also include the author’s surname in the
repeat citation to clarify which source you’re referencing. For instance:

1. Michael Legge, Precious Little (New York: Pod Books, 2015), p. 198.
2. Danielle Ward, Any Questions? (London: DTRT Publishing, 2017), p. 30.
3. Legge, op. cit., p. 102.
 WEBSITE REFERENCE

Please see:

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/
webpage-website-references