The Philippine College of Jurisconsults

HE Integrated Bar of the Philippines is the official organization of all lawyers in the Philippines — official in the sense that the Rules of Court provide for it and for the compulsory membership in it of all members of the Bar. The Philippine Bar Association is a voluntary organization, as are other lawyers’ groups in the country.

The Philippine College of Jurisconsults is not a lawyers’ group, although some of its prominent members are lawyers. It is principally a “collegium” of scholars, who make of the law the subject of study, research, discussion and publication. Its members include professors of international law, Philippine lawyers, foreign lawyers, canon law professors and Shari’a law publicists and scholars.

Incorporated as a nonstock, nonprofit corporation, its aim is to promote the scholarly study of the law and the publication of learned articles as well as the promotion of legal research in the Philippines that measure up to international standards. Its members are called “Fellows of the

Philippine College of Jurisconsults.”

Considering that scholarly books on the law as an academic study are hard to come by in the Philippines and are bought at tremendous cost from Italian, Spanish, English, American, British and Australian publishing houses, it is also hoped that by an exchange of scholarly material, the Fellows of the college will make the precious few scholarly books on the study of law that are present in the Philippines readily available to a wider audience in the form of reviews, precis, articles and critical studies.

All the Fellows of the college have advanced degrees in legal or juridical science and in related fields. The charter members include Justice

Adolf Azcuna, a member of the International Commission of Jurists, Dr. Tony La Viña of the University of the Philippines College of Law, Ateneo de Manila University School of Law and many other law schools; Dr. Jemy Gatdula who completed his LLM studies at Cambridge University and his JSD at San Beda University; Fr. Eliseo Mercado, a scholar on Islamic Studies; Prof. Cristina Montes who earned her “Master de Derecho” from the University of Navarra; Dr. Manuel Solis who holds a PhD in Law from the University of Adelaide. Fr. Jaime Achacoso and Mons. Gary Formoso are both well known canon law professors. Fr. Danny Flores holds the unique degree “Doctor Utriusque Juris” — doctor of both (canon and civil) law from the Lateran University. Assistant Dean Norhabib Barodi is a Shari’a bar topnotcher and an examiner. Vladimir Alarique Cabigao is a Filipino who has however migrated to Australia and has been admitted as a solicitor in that jurisdiction. There are others who have been invited. I am a Fellow of the college as well.

We have no other goal but the promotion of the exchange among different legal systems and legal traditions in the hope that in the fecund field of academe and research, the salutary fruit of scholarship may come forth.