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17 Phil. L.J. 253 (1937-1938)
The Cult of Legalism

handle is hein.journals/philplj17 and id is 265 raw text is: PHILIPPINE LAW JOURNAL Vol. XVII DECEMBER, 1937 No. 6 THE CULT OF LEGALISM By JORGE BOCOBO President, University of the Philippines The votaries of formalism worship the letter of the law with undiminished unction. They have raised their fetish on the pedestal of strict interpretation. Denying the right and the duty of the judge to declare new principles, or to adapt old rules to the changing needs of modern life, many lawyers in the Philippines put their absolute faith in legislative formula- tion as more than sufficient to unfold any policy of the State. Therefore, they say, the courts should never usurp legislative functions by transcending the words of the statutes. Reasonableness Referring to the present controversy, they maintain that social justice can be attained only by an adequate legislation to be passed by the National Assembly. But judging from uni- versal experience, it may well be doubted whether any adequate set of laws can be promulgated that will truly relieve all or most of the unjust hardships which the poor have to undergo. How- ever, granting the improbable-that such legislation can be drafted-there is no assurance that this tree thus planted will flower into the con-summation so full-heartedly desired, unless the roots are nourished in the judicial field by that philosophic spirit and that reasonableness to which Bryce 1 ascribes the excellence of the Roman legal system, and by that process of enlargement which, according to Judge Baldwin, justifies the American courts to do violence to the words of the statute to carry out the judge-discovered intent. 2 What has just been said about any possible legislation on social justice may be said of any other statute. It is the pur- pose of this article to show that the courts do, as they should, enjoy the prerogative of vitalizing statutory law in order that ' Lectures on Jurisprudence, Vol. II, p. 637. -The American Judiciary, p. 84.

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