DIFFICULTIES IN THE STUDY OF CONFLICT OF LAWS - 14 PJP 21 (2024)
The study of private international law is a difficult one because conflict of laws rules (also called “conflicts rules”) are not codified in one statute. In other words, they are not neatly compiled in the same way that marriage rules are under the Family Code of the Philippines (FCP), succession rules are in the New Civil Code of the Philippines (NCC), penalties are in the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines (RPC), corporate liabilities are the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines (RCC) and others.
Instead, private international law rules and principles are scattered across different provisions of the 1987 Constitution, various statutes, numerous codes, and several pieces of jurisprudence. They usually rest inconspicuously among legal provisions that do not invite any attention, especially for those whose eyes are not trained in the field.
The following are examples.
Under Article 26 of the FCP, marriages celebrated abroad and valid there as such are likewise valid in the Philippines. In marriages between a Filipino and a foreigner and when the former later obtains from a foreign court an award of divorce capacitating him/her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall likewise be capacitated to remarry.
Under Article 17 of the NCC, the forms and solemnities of contracts, wills, and other public instruments are governed by the law of the place of their execution. If a written contract is executed in South Africa, for instance, South African laws shall govern its extrinsic validity. Interestingly, a first-year law student would not think much of this until s/he reaches his/her third year in law school.
Under Article 2 of the RPC, except as provided in the treaties and laws giving preferential application, its provisions shall be enforced not only within the national territory of the Philippines, including its atmosphere, its interior waters, and its maritime zone but also outside of its territorial jurisdiction if applied in: (a) crimes committed while on a Philippine ship or airship; (b) crimes involving forgery or counterfeiting of any coin or currency note of the Philippine Islands or obligations and securities issued by the Government of the Philippine Islands; (c) crimes committed abroad but connected with the introduction into the Philippine Islands of the obligations and securities mentioned in the presiding item; (d) crimes committed abroad by persons who, while being public officers or employees, should commit an offense in the exercise of their functions; and, (e) crimes against national security and the law of nations.
Under Section 140 of the RCC, a foreign corporation is one formed, organized, or existing under laws other than those of the Philippines and whose laws allow Filipino citizens and corporations to do business in its own country or state. Such foreign corporation shall have the right to transact business in the Philippines after obtaining a license for that purpose and a certificate of authority from the proper government agency. Section 146 of the same Code also provides that a foreign corporation lawfully doing business in the Philippines shall be bound by all laws, rules, and regulations applicable to domestic corporations of the same class, except those which provide for the creation, formation, organization, or dissolution of corporations or those which fix the relations, liabilities, responsibilities, or duties of stockholders, members, or officers of corporations to each other or those to the corporation.