(SUPERVISED LEGAL RESEARCH PAPER

STANDARD TEMPLATE VER. 1.2)

by

(Student's Full Name)

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Juris Doctor

at

The College of Law

University of the Philippines Diliman
Quezon City
(Month and Year of Submission)

© (Student Name) (Year of Submission)

U.P. COLLEGE OF LAW

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 COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS

DATE : (Date of Submission)

AUTHOR : (Student's Name)

TITLE : (SLR Paper Title)

The U.P. College of Law is hereby granted permission to circulate and have copied for non-
commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or
institutions. I understand that my thesis may be archived electronically by the U.P. Law Library
and made available to the public.

The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the paper nor extensive extracts thereof
may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission.

The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material
appearing in the paper (other than brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgment in
scholarly writing), and that all such use of clearly acknowledged. The author understands that
failure to abide by the rules and practices against plagiarism and academic dishonesty, whether
or not amounting to copyright infringement, creates liability for administrative disciplinary
proceedings and penalties under existing University rules and regulations.

(Student's Signature)
(STUDENT'S NAME)

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statutes Cited ................................................................................................................................. iv

Cases Cited..................................................................................................................................... iv
Table of Authorities ....................................................................................................................... iv
List of Tables (Optional) ..................................................................................................................v
List of Figures (Optional) ................................................................................................................v
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi
List of Abbreviations Used ........................................................................................................... vii
Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................ viii
I. Introduction .................................................................................................................................1
II. How to Use this Template ...........................................................................................................3
A. Editing the Document Directly ......................................................................................... 3
B. Importing Paragraph Styles .............................................................................................. 4
C. Associated Software Settings ........................................................................................... 4
III. Font Selection and Structure .....................................................................................................5
IV. Inserting Tables .........................................................................................................................6
V. Inserting Figures ........................................................................................................................7
A. Section Level 1 ................................................................................................................. 7
1.Sub-section (Section Level 2) ................................................................................... 7
2. Sub-section (Section Level 2) ................................................................................. 8
3. Third Sub-section ..................................................................................................... 8
VI. Creating Tables of Contents and Lists of Tables and Figures ..................................................9
VII. Creating Tables of Statutes, Cases and Authorities ..............................................................10
VIII. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................12
A. Main Conclusion 1 ......................................................................................................... 12
1. Conclusion general findings 1 ............................................................................... 12
2. Conclusion findings 2 ........................................................................................... 12
B. Main Conclusion 2 ......................................................................................................... 12
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................13

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 STATUTES CITED (OPTIONAL)

Rep. Act No. 8550, s. 2 ..................................................................................................................11

1987 Const., Art. 12, s. 2 ...............................................................................................................11

CASES CITED (OPTIONAL)

Cruz v. Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, 347 SCRA 128 ..................................10
Carino v. Insular Government, 41 Phil 935 ...................................................................................11
Atok Big Wedge Mining Co. v. IAC, 261 SCRA 526 ...................................................................11

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES (OPTIONAL)

IV Tolentino, Commentaries on the Civil Code, 39 ......................................................................11

Hohfeld, W.S. (1917) Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied to Judicial Reasoning. 26 Yale
L. J. 710..........................................................................................................................................11
III Manresa 698 ..............................................................................................................................13

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 LIST OF TABLES (OPTIONAL)

Table 4.1: This table means absolutely nothing...............................................................................6

Table 4.2: This also means nothing, and demonstrates the automatic table numbering options. ....6

LIST OF FIGURES (OPTIONAL)

Figure 3.1. This figure means nothing. ...........................................................................................7

Figure 3.2. This figure is repeated to demonstrate the auto-numbering. ........................................8
Figure 5.1. This figure is repeated again to show how the the figure numbers restart at each
chapter. ..........................................................................................................................................10

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 ABSTRACT
The paper must contain an abstract that occupies a single page, with no illustrations or footnotes.
Abstracts generally inform a reader who is reviewing a library archive whether or not the paper
is relevant to an issue or question that is subject of his research or interests. They are to be
limited to a maximum of 150 words only, and must concisely summarize the contents of the
student's paper, adequately describing the issues and arguments that are made, as well as how the
question/s raised are resolved.

KEYWORDS: (The student is advised to list several keywords that s/he believes will properly
identify the paper for indexing and use by electronic search engines like Google and research
services like Westlaw. E.g.: research; template; forms)

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED

SLR Supervised Legal Research

UP University of the Philippines
OCS Office of the College Secretary

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The content and format of this page are up to the student, respecting the usual formatting
conventions of font size, page numbering, margins, etc. This is the place where most students
acknowledge the contribution of advisers, resource persons, reviewers, and informants, most
especially their supervisor(s). Given the realities of producing a research paper and the impact on
the people in the student’s immediate surroundings (e.g., spouse, partner, children, parents, and
other long-suffering friends and associates), many students will acknowledge these sources of
support.

I. INTRODUCTION
This is an experimental template intended to standardize the format of submissions for
Supervised Legal Research and Writing under Professor Jay L. Batongbacal. It was
originally written in Open Document File (ODF) format (“.odt” file extension) used by
OpenOffice/LibreOffice open source software suite available at www.openoffice.org and
www.libreoffice.org. The goal is to elevate the standards of SLR paper formats up to a level
that meets the various demands of academic communities worldwide. This document is
based on the recommended template used by Dalhousie University (Canada) for thesis and
dissertations.

An SLR paper is a form of expository writing that demonstrates the student's ability to
conduct sound and skillful research in accordance with the standards of the legal profession,
and her/his intellectual capabilities in exploring and analyzing significant issues and
questions of law and policy. It should comprise 30-35 pages of original text, excluding the
preliminary pages, footnotes, and bibliography. In exceptional circumstances, and upon prior
permission of the supervisor, it may reach an absolute maximum of 50 pages.

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Each SLR paper should begin with a short Chapter 1 entitled Introduction, which typically
includes the background to the work, a summary of its overarching themes and concepts, the
questions to be discussed, and arguments and/or findings made. It should provide the reader
with a good idea of the structure of the document, describing the sequence of the
discussion/analysis, and its conclusions or recommendations. As a rule of thumb, the length
of the Introduction should not be more than 5% of the total length of the entire paper. For
example, if the body of the SLR paper is 30 pages long, the introduction should not be more
than 1½ page long. The Introduction is different from the Abstract; the former introduces the
author's work in order to pique the reader's interest, while the latter summarizes the same for
purposes of indexing and archiving.

Chapter Two provides information on how to use this document template. Chapter Three
contains information on font selection and formatting choices. Chapter Four gives
instructions on inserting Tables, while Chapter Five deals with Figures. Chapter Six
discusses the creation of the Tables of Contents and optional List of Figures and List of
Tables, while Chapter Seven deals with Tables of Statutes, Cases, and Authorities. After a
short note on presenting the Conclusions, there is some explanation about Bibliographies and
citation styles, and the how this course requires the use of Bluebook citation style.

The Headers and Footers of this document have been pre-formatted. The student need only
type in her/his surname and short title in the Header line once; it shall be repeated in every
page. The short title should be comprised of only one to three words. Note that page number
formats are different between the preliminary pages and the pages of the main body of the
document; this is done through the creation of Section Breaks.

The various index pages (Table of Contents, Authorities, Cases; List of Figures, Tables) may
be updated by moving the cursor over the table and right-clicking on the “Update
Index/Table” command in the pop-up context menu. Assuming that the student has properly
used and assigned the Styles, the tables should reflect the pagination accurately. Note that

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only the first to third levels of headings are included in the contents; the 4th level (as well as
any further levels) is no longer included. Be mindful of the assignment of headings: the
software will include/exclude entries based on the assigned Styles, not their contents. So,
even if a paragraph is blank/without text, it will still appear and be counted in the Table of
Contents if it is assigned the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level heading style.

Footnoting is the standard practice used in most legal articles.1 Use the Insert Footnote
command; allow the software to assign the footnote numbers automatically, unless you
intend a footnote to be not included in the numbering. If so, enter a custom footnote character
mark (e.g., “*” or “**”) on the menu that appears when after clicking on Insert >
Footnote/Endnote.

II. HOW TO USE THIS TEMPLATE

A. EDITING THE DOCUMENT DIRECTLY

To use this template, simply open this “SLR Paper Template Exp.odt” with LibreOffice 4.0,
then modify/edit the contents just like any ordinary word processing file. The first time the
user attempts to save the file, it is suggested that the Save As command be used and the file
be given a new File Name.

Use the Styles and Formatting Pane to assign the appropriate paragraph styles to any new
paragraphs that are written. The Styles and Formatting Pane should be set to show the
Custom Styles; this is done using the selection menu/button at the bottom of the pane. The
custom styles for this template all start with the letters “SLR.”

1 Footnotes may serve several purposes. It may simply contain a citation to a provision of law, case,
book, article, or other material. It may also contain an explanation or discussion of a point
introduced by the matter footnoted, but which could be seen as a disruption or digression if
included in the main body of the paper. Footnotes may also refer to other portions of the author's
paper, or to the work of others, for further enlightenment of the reader.

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Note that hitting the “Enter” button at the end of a paragraph creates a new paragraph that
may have some characteristics of the previous paragraph; in such cases, simply apply the
desired style for the new paragraph by double-clicking on the same in the Styles and
Formatting Pane while the cursor is on the paragraph to be formatted. Due to a random
software bug, sometimes it may be necessary to first apply the “Clear formatting” style
before assigned the custom style.

The Navigator Pane shows the document's existing Headings in an Outline View. This helps
the writer keep track of the structure of the paper; it can also facilitate the re-structuring of
the document by clicking-and-dragging Headings in the Navigator Pane, instead of cutting-
and-pasting each paragraph of text. All body text under the relevant headings are
automatically relocated with the Headings when the latter are re-arranged. The user may also
quickly move from one part of the paper to another by double-clicking on the relevant
heading in the Navigator Pane.

B. IMPORTING PARAGRAPH STYLES

Students may also import the customized paragraph styles from this document into another
document. In the document to which the styles are to be imported, click on the “New Style
from Selection” button on the Styles and Formatting Pane, then select “Load Styles”, then
click on the “From File” button to select the SLR Paper Template Exp.ott file. The new styles
from this document should then appear in the Custom Styles listing in the other document.
All custom styles in this document have style names that begin with the three letters “SLR.”

C. ASSOCIATED SOFTWARE SETTINGS

This template was designed to work with Zotero Research Software, an open-source online
research tool that may be downloaded from www.zotero.org. Zotero is a plug-in to the
Firefox browser; but a standalone program is also available. Students must download the

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main program (Zotero 4.0) and the associated word processor plug-in
(OpenOffice/LibreOffice/NeoOffice plug-in). Make sure that both Firefox and
OpenOffice/LibreOffice are active when editing your document.2 Always open Firefox ahead
of LibreOffice. If the student does not have Zotero software installed in an active and online
Firefox browser, a macro error message may be generated. The Document Preferences have
been initially preset to use the Bluebook Law Review citation style.3 Zotero field codes may
be removed from the final version of the soft copy to be submitted.

The paper shall be submitted in both printed hard copy submitted to the OCS, and electronic
file copy emailed to the supervisor. In cases of submission at different dates, the date of
receipt of the emailed copy shall be considered as the date of submission. However, in case
of conflict between the printed copy and the submitted electronic copy, the printed version
shall prevail. Such conflicts, however, must not amount to a substantial revision of the
submitted paper: a substantially different version shall be considered a new submission that
invalidates the previous electronic submission.

III. FONT SELECTION AND STRUCTURE

This template incorporates most best practices for academic writing. For example, the text is
in the common format using 12 point font and line spacing set at 1.5. The typographical best
practices are also used, where main body text is presented using a serif font (Times New
Roman), while headings use a sans serif font (Arial, to ensure compatibility with both Mac
and PC formats). Students will note that the font choices for headings reflect the structural
hierarchies of the section, in order to enhance understanding of the structure of the document.
Thus chapter headings (SLR Level 1 – Chapter) are in Arial Bold, 16 points, small caps and

2 Even if you are offline, Firefox should be active in order for you to use the citation functionality,
even though you are not acquiring new data from the internet.
3 The Bluebook Citation Style is used for submission because among the available Zotero Citation
Style options, it bears the closest resemblance to the Philippine Manual of Legal Citation.

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center-aligned; section headings (SLR Level 2 – Section) are in Arial Bold, 14 points, small
caps and left-aligned; sub-section headings (SLR Level 3 - 1st Level Sub-section) are in Arial
Bold, 12 points, left-aligned; and the lowest level (SLR Level 4 - 2nd Level Sub-section) are
in Arial Italic, 12 points, left-aligned.

IV. INSERTING TABLES

Tables may similarly be useful for presenting data in a more easily-comprehensible manner.
Tables should look uncrowded and attractive. Numeric data with decimals in table cells are
normally aligned right so that decimal points and numbers line up; while blocks of text are
usually left-aligned. However, the design of tables ultimately depends on the needs and
preferences of the author subject to the requirements of clarity and order in presentation of
the data. Tables are created using the Table Insert Table command on the main menu.

University Graduates 2009 Passing Rate 2010

University of Soul 69 78%
Will Breakers College 122 93%
University of St. Damien 308 32%
Table 4.1: This table means absolutely nothing.

Tables created using the Table > Insert command are inserted by the software in a different
manner. To create even vertical spaces above and below the Table and its Caption, use the
Format > Paragraph menu, to put a space (e.g., 0.18”) above and below the paragraph in the
“Spacing” options.
Grade Equivalent
X good
Z bad
Table 4.2: This also means nothing, and demonstrates the automatic table
numbering options.

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The captions need to be formatted separately as well, using the Format > Paragraph menu, in
order to align it with the table to which it refers.

V. INSERTING FIGURES

A. SECTION LEVEL 1
1. Sub-section (Section Level 2)

Though not common in legal articles, figures are often helpful in elaborating upon ideas and
issues discussed in the main body text. Figures should, as much as possible, be composed of
black-and-white line drawings or greyscale images, with a resolution of 600dpi. Color figures
and low-resolution figures or photographs are discouraged as they do not show up very well
in most printed journals. The following is an example of what a figure (Illustration 3.1)
should look like, and how it is arranged on the page. Any information in the figure below is
purely for demonstrative purposes and does not represent anything in reality.

14
 Figure 3.

1. This figure means nothing.

Leave a uniform amount of vertical space above and below a figure and its caption and the
text above and below it. If there is too litte space left at the bottom of the page for a figure,
move it to the next page.

2. Sub-section (Section Level 2)

Never place a figure immediately following a Heading (or sub-heading). Figures (and tables)
should always be inside the main body text, i.e., between paragraphs of text. Figures (and
tables) should always be introduced or referred to in the text; they should not be inserted
without explanation of their relationship to the discussion.

15
 Figure 3.

2. This figure is repeated to demonstrate the auto-

numbering.
Note that in the second figure above (Illustration 3.2), the figure numbering indicates the
chapter number. It is necessary to enter the chapter number (3) prior to the figure number.
The space for captions is automatically provided by the program when the figure is inserted.
The highlighted number is the figure's number as tracked by the software; do not change or
delete it as the software will not be able to track it.

3. Third Sub-section

a. Third level sub-section (Section Level 3)

This is intended only to demonstrate the third level after the “Chapter” level. Subsequent
subheadings will no longer be counted in the Table of Contents.

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 VI. CREATING TABLES OF CONTENTS AND
LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES
The Table of Contents, List of Tables, and List of Figures were all created by clicking on
Insert in the main menu, then selecting “Indexes and Tables” and “Indexes and Tables” in the
submenus that pop-up, while the cursor is located at the top of the page where the table is to
be inserted. Select either “Table of Contents”, “Illustration Table”, or “Index of Tables”
from the Type options. To prevent the program from inserting its own name to the inserted
tables, just leave the field where the name automatically appears (above the Type selection
button) blank.

If done properly, the software should be able to correctly identify the page numbers where
the headings, tables, or figures appear. Headings are identified by the Style assignments; this
is why it is important to use the Styles and Formatting Pane to format text in a uniform
manner. As a general rule, do not format paragraphs individually. Footnotes also have a
standard format.4

Note that the following illustration will not fit in the remaining space of this page, and is
moved on to the next page in order to maintain the integrity of the figure and the caption that
accompanies it. As a general rule, do not sacrifice the clarity of the figure for the amount of
space available on the page. Be wary of changes in the position of figures and tables
especially if you insert text in the main body or create new footnotes. These may result in the
figures extending beyond the margins or overlapping with footnotes. Tables may be split
into two unnecessarily.

4 Times New Roman, 10 points, left-aligned with a hanging indent to set apart the footnote number.
Footnote numbers in the text are set to superscript, while in the footnote entries are likewise 10
points. A tab separates the footnote number from the footnote text. The style can be found in the
Special Styles selection of the Styles and Formatting Pane.

17
 Figure 5.

3. This figure is repeated again to show how the

the figure numbers restart at each chapter.
Tables and figures are included in the automatically-generated indexes only if one uses the
spaces for captions provided by the program upon the insertion of the table or figure. Do not
edit the highlighted number; it will remove the assigned number. Text before and after that
number may be edited.

VII. CREATING TABLES OF STATUTES,

CASES AND AUTHORITIES
Standard legal research papers contain a separate tables of Statutes, Cases, and Authorities,
instead of figures and tables. These are basically separate indexes, and it is useful to gain
experience in creating them for purposes of writing appeal briefs as well as academic papers.
Since legal bibliography is a specialized format, however, it can be done only semi-
automatically in OpenOffice/LibreOffice working in conjunction with Zotero.

For example, to create a table of Cases Cited, it is necessary to tag the case title as an Index
Entry. First highight the text to be tagged, i.e., the case title and citation 347 SCRA 128.
From the main menu, click on the “Insert > Indexes and Tables > Entry...” command. In the

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Index type selection field, choose “Table of Cases.” The highlighted text should appear in the
space for “Entry.” Press “Insert” then “Close” and the text in the paper should be highlighted
in grey. This means it is already in the index. The same commands may be used for
subsequent entries; just make sure that “Table of Cases” is selected in the Index field. Do the
same with other cases like 41 Phil 935 wherever the case appears for the first time, whether
in the main body or in the footnote.5 When done, go to the Table of Cases page, place the
cursor over the highlighted portions, and right-click “Update Index/Table.”

A table of Statutes Cited can be created in the same way. Citations of statutes and
books/commentaries (e.g., ) may similarly be highlighted and then tagged using the “Insert >
Indexes and Tables > Entry...” command; however, in the Index, click on the button next to
the index title space and enter “Table of Authorities” when prompted. This creates a separate
index. The same process is repeated (e.g., ), this time with “Table of Statutes” selected in the
Index field. The same goes for the citation of authorities such as commentaries 6 and legal
articles.7 Note that indexes sort either alphabetically or numerically; the user will need to
arrange the references manually to reflect any substantial hierarchies (e.g., Constitution first,
followed by statutes of general application, then special statutes, then local ordinances, etc.).

Due to limitations of the software, and the special requirements of legal bibliography,
subsequent appearances of the same cases/authorities/citations will have to be indexed
separately and will appear as repeated entries in the resulting Table of Cases. Manually edit
the Table of Cases when finished, to remove duplicate entries and add the page numbers to a
single line/entry. It is recommended that the tagging of cases and authorities and creation of
the Tables of Cases and Authorities be done only after the paper is finished, when there will
be no more substantial changes to the main body text and pagination. This avoids any issues
with errorenous commands or inadvertent changes to formatting and the like.

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In order to avoid unseen field code conflicts with the Zotero research software, do not
generate these index tables until after Zotero has done its job of formatting the citations, and
the field codes have been removed. It should be the last stage of your production process
prior to submission. See the last section of this template (Bibliography) for further notes.

VIII. CONCLUSION
Every SLR paper should end with a chapter that forms its conclusion. Whether there are sub-
sections in this part depends on how extensive the discussion is. Most of the time, the
conclusion summarizes the arguments and accomplishments of the work, which is useful to
emphasize its usefulness and relevance to the subject at hand.

A. MAIN CONCLUSION 1
1. Conclusion general findings 1

a. Specific findings/lessons 1

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. Whether a fox is quick depends on the
perception of movement in terms of units of time. Common agreement as to the units of time
provides an objective basis for comparison between different rates of movement, thus
providing an acceptable usage of the term “quick”. But the characterization of a fox as brown
is an arbitrary decision given that color is created by the interaction of reflective wavelengths
of the visible electromagnetic spectrum upon the receptors of the human eye. Since each
individual person has access only to the data from her/his own eyes, the description of a
particular wavelength as “brown” depends only upon the individual's trust in another person
who informs him that such wavelength is called “brown.” This means that the perception of
browness is actually less than objective and much more subjective and arbitrary.

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 b. Specific findings/lessons 2

The dogs were lazy while the quick brown fox jumped over them. The perceived laziness of
dogs may actually be a mis-apprehension of the canine's adaptation to its immediate
environment and the stimulus that is available. After all, if one does not have a stimulating
and interesting environment, then one will quick get bored, and when one is bored, sleep can
provide a preferable means of getting through the day. It is actually more efficient, since it
saves energy and wastes no time. Therefore, a “lazy dog” so-called, may actually be working
hard throughout the day until a worthy stimulus comes along.

2. Conclusion findings 2

Foxes are jumpy while dogs are lazy. This is indeed a completey arbitrary conclusion, and
can be considered as violative of the freedom against discrimination.

B. MAIN CONCLUSION 2
One might do better with cats.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Legal citation styles like Bluebook 19th Edition and the Philippine Manual of Legal Citations
do not normally require a separate bibliography, because the footnote citations are intended
to be sufficient bibliographic reference for legal research. However, these styles make certain
assumptions about the publication data of the materials that are cited; e.g., when one cites a
work like Manresa's Commentaries to the Civil Code (e.g., ), it assumes that there has only
ever been one edition of Manresa issued by only one publisher and that any law library will
therefore have exactly the same edition and volume. Such assumptions no longer apply in
most cases in the real world.

Finalized SLR papers will have their Zotero field codes removed in order to minimize the
occurrence of subsequent errors. After the field codes have been removed, you may then
update/create the various tables of Statutes, Cases, and Authorities. Note that in in pleadings
and extended legal works (e.g., law books), the Table of Statutes, Table of Cases, and Table
of Authorities take the place of the standard Bibliography section. This allows the legal
researchers of courts to quickly verify cited materials. In the case of legal articles in law
journals/reviews, the tables may be required to be included in the initial submission of the
draft, but may not be included in the published version of the article. The tables facilitate the
verification of sources that is normally undertaken by law journals/reviews.

Thus, the recommended work flow for using this Template is as follows:

1. Begin writing with LibreOffice by opening and then saving this template under a
different filename (Save As...) and editing that new file you named (not this template
file).

2. Use Zotero to insert citations and bibliographic entries, using Bluebook citation style.
Consult closely with supervisor until approval for finalization. This may require
electronic exchanges of the file and extensive use of the “Comment” function.

22
 Activate the Edit > Changes > Record function to be able to track the changes as the
document evolves.

3. When approved for finalization, remove all Comments and Hide all edits prepare for
print-out and submission.

4. Using the Zotero menu, press the Remove Field Codes button to eliminate Zotero's
hidden commands from the paper. Save the file under a different file name.
WARNING: once field codes are removed, the paper becomes an ordinary document
without Zotero's citation/bibliography functions. You will have to start all over again
if you want to add new citations/references. Always keep a back-up copy of your
original Zotero-enabled file.

5. Copy-edit the resulting document. As you do so, tag the statutes, cases, and
authorities in order to index them for their corresponding tables.

6. Generate the indexes using the Update or Insert tables commands (Table of Conttents,
List of Tables, Cases Cited, etc.).

7. Save the final document with a filename constructed as follows:

SLR[year]_[SURNAME]_[Short Title].odt.

-oOo-

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