What is Law?: How to study and why it matters how you study On August 10, 2019, a rainy Saturday afternoon, the UP College of Law hosted a kapihan session entitled “What is Law: How to study and why it matters how you study”. It’s guest of honor and speaker was Supreme Court Associate Justice Mario Victor F. Leonen who is also a former dean of the college. “You cannot be a revolutionary if you are not a master of Law” began Justice Leonen’s discussion. He emphasized that UP lawyers must know the law well enough to see its interstices…

Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan elected vice chair of Special Commission on Recognition of Foreign Judgments UP Law Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan was elected as one of the Vice Chairs of the Special Commission on Recognition of Foreign Judgments during the 22nd Diplomatic Session of the Hague Conference of Private International Law (HCCH) at the Peace Palace in the Hague, Netherlands from 18 June to 2 July 2019. The Diplomatic Session was attended by close to 400 members and observers. Prof. Aguiling-Pangalangan, who also serves as the Director of the UP Law Center Institute of Human Rights, was part of the Philippine delegation…

Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan: “Parents and Children: When Law and Technology Unbundle Traditional Identities” (FLP Professorial Chair Lecture) Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan delivered the lecture  "Parents and Children: When Law and Technology Unbundle Traditional Identities" as part of the Foundation for Liberty and Prosperity Professorial Chair on March 28, 2019, at the University of the Philippines-College of Law. Her lecture is part of a series of public lectures conducted under the Chief Justice Panganiban Professorial Chairs on Liberty and Prosperity to encourage educational institutions and law schools to research and propagate the philosophy of safeguarding of liberty and nurturing of prosperity under…

Prof. Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan: PH withdrawal from ICC ‘shortsighted’ In an ambush interview during the kick-off ceremony of the 7th Biennal Conference of the Asian Society in Pasay City last March 18, 2019, Prof. Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan told the Press that the Philippines should not have withdrawn from the Rome Statute and that withdrawal from the International Criminal Court is ‘shortsighted.’  She explained, “I believe that we acceded to the statute in order to provide protection for Filipinos in case of atrocities and this was rather shortsighted, I would say, because maybe now we don’t think that it should be a used, but how about in the future?”  This was after President Rodrigo Duterte announced the country’s withdrawal from the…

Prof. Jay Batongbacal on the PH-US Mutual Defense Treaty and the "Grey Zone" Chinese strategy In two separate reports, Professor Batongbacal talks on Chinese strategy in the West Philippine Sea and the MDT in wake of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit. *** Prof. Batongbacal refers to the “grey zone” Chinese strategyMalaysian news site Benar News cited Maritime analyst Dr. Jay Batongbacal in its report Philippines: Activists Protest against Chinese Blocking Fishing Boats.  Referring to the fifty Chinese boats blocking Filipino fishermen in Kalayaan Islands, Prof. Batongbacal spoke of the “grey zone” strategy He explained that civilian vessels are…

Prof. Te: Deep freeze for the constitutional guarantee against ex post facto laws In the column “Deep Dive” of 15 Feb. 2019, Professor Theodore Te dissects the arrests of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and of former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos, Jr., on grounds of the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws. The theory of the DOJ on cyber libel being a “continuing crime” and its prescriptive period being subject to “multiple republication,” is what the court will have to resolve, writes Professor Te. His position is that “multiple republication” or “continuing crime” are not principles that apply to libel,…