New Release: MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND POLITICS by Dante B. Gatmaytan Now Available at the UP Law Center Book Room MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND POLITICS (UP Law Faculty Scholarship Series) Dante B. Gatmaytan PHP 450.00 The Supreme Court, according to conventional wisdom, does not concern itself with policy issues. Policy-making is left to other "political" branches of government. Experience has shown, however, that the judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court, cannot avoid politics because it is asked to decide politically charged issues from the legitimacy of a revolution to the impacts of globalization. The court's…

Dean Agabin Assails Members of the Lower House Dean Pacifico Agabin, who has taught Public Office and Accountability at the College, said that congressmen in the House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability were wrong in issuing a show cause order to Justices of the Court of Appeals and for accusing them of judicial overreach. The Dean rendered this opinion regarding the month long impasse between the Lower House and the CA in the case of the detained provincial officers of Ilocos Norte. He assailed House representatives for their seeming unawareness of the “expanded definition of judicial power in…

Prof. Jay Batongbacal: "Dutertismo and the West Philippine Sea: Year One" In an article published by Rappler.com last June 30, Prof. Jay Batongbacal addressed the country’s eventual policy in dealing with China in issues over the West Philippine Sea a year after after the conclusion of the Philippines v. China case against the latter’s “nine-dash line” claim in the area. The director of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea stressed that while the government’s calculated willingness to communicate with China has moved the country toward a position of non-alignment and has reaped apparent benefits, “it…

Prof. Tony La Viña: Martial law, right or wrong: depends on how it is implemented Martial law, right or wrong: depends on how it is implemented  In his column Eagle Eyes (30 May 2017), Professor Tony La Viña ponders on the rightness of Proclamation No. 216 dated 23 May 2017 issued by President Duterte. Along with Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, the writer offers the opinion: “It depends.” The Proclamation declares a state of martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus throughout Mindanao. La Viña writes that although he does not see sufficient factual basis for…