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STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION Notes

This document discusses statutory construction, which is defined as the process of determining the meaning and intent of legislation as it applies to a particular case. It notes that statutory construction is necessary when a statute's meaning is unclear or the case is not explicitly addressed. The document outlines that the legislative branch makes laws, the executive branch enforces laws, and the judicial branch interprets laws through statutory construction. It also lists the requisites for statutory construction, including an actual case or controversy and ambiguity in the relevant law.

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Jara Acoon
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30 views

STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION Notes

This document discusses statutory construction, which is defined as the process of determining the meaning and intent of legislation as it applies to a particular case. It notes that statutory construction is necessary when a statute's meaning is unclear or the case is not explicitly addressed. The document outlines that the legislative branch makes laws, the executive branch enforces laws, and the judicial branch interprets laws through statutory construction. It also lists the requisites for statutory construction, including an actual case or controversy and ambiguity in the relevant law.

Uploaded by

Jara Acoon
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION

INTRODUCTION
Law- a rule of conduct formulated and made obligatory by legitimate power of the state.

Statute- an act of the legislature, as an organized body, expressed in the form, and passed according
to the procedure required to constitute it as part of the law of the land.

Definition of Statutory Construction


Statutory Construction – the art or process of discovering and expounding the meaning and intention
of the authors of the law concerning its application to a given case, where that intention is rendered
doubtful, among others, because the given case is not explicitly provided for in the law.

Justice Martin defines statutory construction as the art of seeking the intention of the legislature in
enacting a statute and applying it to a given state of facts.

A judicial function is required when a statute is invoked, and different interpretations are in
contention.

Difference between judicial legislation and statutory construction: Where legislature attempts to do
several things one of which is invalid, it may be discarded if the remainder of the act is workable and
in no way depends upon the invalid portion, but if that portion is an integral part of the act, and its
excision changes the manifest intent of the act by broadening its scope to include subject matter or
territory which was not included therein as enacted, such excision is “judicial legislation” and not
“statutory construction”.

Situs of Construction
In our system of government:
1. Legislative power is vested in the Congress of the Philippines – the Senate and the House of
the Representatives
2. Executive power is vested in the President of the Republic of the Philippines (Art. VII, Sec.1,
Phil. Const.)
3. Judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court and such lower courts as may be established
by law. (Art VIII, Sec. 1, Phil. Const.)

Legislative – make the law


Executive - executes the law
Judicial – interprets the law

Simply stated, the situs of construction and interpretation of written laws belongs to the judicial
department. It is the duty of the Courts of Justice to settle actual controversies involving legally
demandable and enforceable rights and to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of
discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of
the government.

Supreme Court is the only Constitutional Court and all other lower courts are statutory courts and
such lower courts have the power to construe and interpret written laws.

Duty of Courts to Construe the Law

DUTY OF THE COURTS TO CONSTRUE AND INTERPRET THE LAW; REQUISITES


1. There must be an actual case or controversy,
2. There is ambiguity in the law involved in the controversy.

Ambiguity exists if reasonable persons can find different meanings in a statute, document, etc.

A statute is ambiguous if it is admissible of two or more possible meanings. If the law is clear and
unequivocal, the Court has no other alternative but to apply the law and not interpret it.

Construction and interpretation of law come only after it has been demonstrated that application is
impossible or inadequate without them.

Different Kinds of Construction


CONSTRUCTION AND INTERPRETATION -Art or process of discovering and expounding the meaning
and intention of the authors of the law, where that intention is rendered doubtful by reasons of
uncertainty in its language or the fact that the given case is not explicitly provided for in the law.

Basis: Because of infirmities of language and the limited scope in legislative drafting.

Interpretation- Art of finding the true meaning and sense of any form of words

Construction- Drawing warranted conclusions not always included in direct expressions or


determining the application of words to facts in litigation.

Different Kinds of Construction and Interpretation


Hermeneutics – the science or art of construction and interpretation.

Legal hermeneutics – is the systematic body of rules which are recognized as applicable to the
construction and interpretation of legal writings.

Subjects of Construction

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