I.INTRODUCTION(Reference: COMMENTARIES ANDJURISPRUDENCE ONTHE CIVIL CODE OFTHEPHILIPPINES byDr. ArturoM. Tolentino,Ph.B., D.C.L., pp. 1-10A. ConceptsofLaw. Thetermlawmaybeunderstood in two concepts: (1) general orabstract sense, and (2) specifc or materialsense. First sense eui!alent to "panishterm !erecho# in the second, to "panishterm ley.Same; General Sense. $n the general orabstract sense, lawhasbeendefned as%thescience o& moralrules, &ounded on the rationalnature o& man, which go!ern his &ree acti!ity, &orthe reali'ation o& the indi!idual and social ends,o& a nature both demandable and reciprocal.( (1"anche' )oman *)+rie,y, it is the mass o& obligatory rulesestablished &or the purpose o& go!erning therelations o& persons in society. (1 "al!at 1-*)Same; Specifc Sense. $n a specifc ormaterial sense, law has been defned as a%.uridical proposition or an aggregate o& .uridicalpropositions, promulgated and published by thecompetent organs o& the"tateinaccordancewiththe/onstitution.( (1-$ 0nnecerus, 1ipp23ol& 1*4) $t is a norm o& human conduct in socialli&e, established by a so!ereign organi'ation andimposed &or the compulsory obser!ance o& all. (1)uggiero 5-4)."anche' )oman defnes it as %a rule o& conduct,.ust,obligatory,promulgated bythecompetentauthority&orthecommongoodo& apeopleornation, whichconstitutesanobligatoryruleo&conduct &or all its members.(B. o!n"ations of Law. 6aw is a product o&social li&e and is a creation o& human nature. $twas intended by man to ser!e man. $t regulatesthe relations o& human beings so that harmonycan be maintained in the social group, by placingrestrictions on indi!idual liberty in order to ma7eco-e8istence possible. 6aw, there&ore, rests uponthe concepts o& order, co-e8istence, and liberty.C.C#aracteristics of Law. (1) it is a rule o&human conduct, (2) promulgated by competentauthority, (*) obligatory, and (9) generalobser!ance.D. Law an" $orals. :ot all human conductis regulatedbylaw. Thereareother &orms o&regulation, such as morals and religion. ;nly therules o& law, howe!er, ha!e a legal sanction andcan be en&orced by public authority.6awandmoralsha!eacommonethical basisandspring&romthesamesourcethesocialconscience. $n &act, there was a time intheremote past, when the mind o& man was still initschildishstate, con&used, unabletoanaly'eand abstract, when spiritual and moral conceptswere indistinguishable &rom the .uristic andlegal. $t was useless then to search &or the traceso& lawasdistinct &rommorals. This con&usioncontinued e!en into the classical age, as may beseen &rom the writings o& reece, there was no word to signi&y law,because it was included in the uni!ersal concepto& .ustice . =mongthe)omans, theterm "u# isderi!ed &rom&rom.ustice, and it has beendefned as the art o& being good and &air."incetheyspring&romacommonsource, lawandmoralsha!emanyidentical precepts. +utthe)omansbegantodistinguishbetweenlawand morals, and the distinction has remained tothepresent day. Thelawinmanycasesta7esintoaccount moral concepts# howe!er, not allmoral duties ha!e been con!erted into .uridicalobligations, because i& this were to happen,moralswouldlosetheiressential characteristico& being !oluntary.The feld o& morals is more e8tensi!e than that o&law. 6awco!ers only social acti!ities, or therelations o& man to his &ellow-man# but the feldo& morals includes, not only the duties o& man tohis &ellow-being, but also those to himsel& and tohis>od. 0!enamongourdutiestoour&ellow-men, many are still dictated by morals, such asthose which ha!e a psychological basis,including the duties o& assistance and sel&-sacrifce.The purpose o& lawandmorals isbasically thesame: happiness, whichcannot e8ist &or man,e8cept through a permanent and stableeuilibriumbetween human personalities. +utbecause o& the distinction between them, an actmay be entirely in con&ormity with law butcontrary to morals# and $ice $er#%, conduct maybe.ustifable&romthepointo& !iewo& moralsbut contrary to law. 6aw and morals according to/olin and /apitant are li7e two concentriccircles# it is, howe!er, perhaps more accurate tosaythat theyareli7etwointersectingcircles,with many principles in a common 'one, and yetwithsome principles o& one at !ariancewiththose o& the other.%.General Di&isions of Law. 6aw in its mostcomprehensi!e sense has been di!ided into twogeneral groups: di!ine law and human law.+y!i$ine l%& is meant that in which >od himsel&isthelegislatorwhohaspromulgatedthelaw#by hu'%n l%& is meant that which ispromulgated by man to regulate humanrelations.?uman lawis in turn di!ided into two mainclasses: generalor public law and indi!idualorpri!ate law. These in turn are subdi!ided as&ollows:$.>eneral or public law:(a) $nternationallaw, or that which go!erns therelations between nations or states, that is,between human beings in their collecti!econcept.(b) /onstitutional law, or that which go!erns therelations between human beings as citi'ens o& astate and the go!erning power.(c) =dministrati!e law, or that which go!erns therelations between o@cials and employees o& thego!ernment.(d) /riminal law, or that whichguarantiesthecoerci!e power o& the lawso that it will beobeyed.(e) )eligious law, or that whichregulates thepractice o& religion.$$. $ndi!idual or pri!ate law:(a) /i!il law, or that which regulates the relationso& indi!iduals &or purely pri!ate ends.(b) Aercantilelaw, orthatwhichregulatesthespecial relations produced by commercialtransactions.(c) erman code too7 &ourteenyears# the "wiss and the /hile codes each too7eight years# andthe=rgentinecodetoo7f!eyears. The /i!il /ode o& the erman /ode, which is perhaps one o&the best in the world today, was se!erelycritici'ed a&ter its completion in 1FFH. This led toa period o& re!ision, &rom 1FCD to 1FC5, when asecond code was published. This was againre!ised, andthepresent andfnal editionwasappro!ed one year later.I. Co"ifcation in Spain. The mo!e to ma7ethe laws in "pain uni&orm was started by =l&onsoI, 7nownasthe3ise, bythepromulgationin1255o& theFuero)eal, whichcanproperlybecalledacode. Thesecondstepwasmadeby=l&onsoI$, whenthroughthe )r!en%'iento!eAlc%l% of 1*+,, he promulgated the code 7nownasL%# -iete P%rti!%#. This was &ollowed by suchother collections or compilations as the Leye# !eToro, L% .ue$% Recopil%cion, L% Recopil%cion !el%# Leye# !e /n!i%, L% .o$i#i'% Recopil%cion,this last one ha!ing been promulgated by /arlos$J on Kuly 15, 1FD5.=llthese codes or compilations,howe!er,wereo& a general character embracing all thedi!isions o& law. The frst step towards thecodifcation o& the diBerent branches o& law wasmade in the /onstitution o& 1F12, whichpro!ided that %a single /i!il /ode shall go!ern inall thedominionso& the"panishmonarchy.(=odo&redo )eyes was also appointed member on=ugust 1D, 1C92, thereby increasing themembership to ten.The /ode /ommittee had begun its wor7 o&codifcation o& the ci!il code# but its records weredestroyed in the battle &or the liberation o&Aanila in 1C95.;n Aarch 2D, 1C9H, by 08ecuti!e ;rder :o. 9F,ue!arra, Er.