General Principles Flashcards
§1 Sources of Law
The sources of law are legislation and custom
§2 Legislation
Legislation is the solemn expression of legislative will
§3 Custom
Custom results from practice repeated for a long time and generally accepted as law. Custom may abrogate legislation.
§4 Absence of legislation and custom
When no particular rule can be derived from legislation or custom, the court is bound to proceed according to equity. To decide equitability, resort is made to justice, reason and prevailing usages.
Secondary sources are jurisprudence, doctrine, usages, equity
§5 Ignorance of law
No one may avail himself of ignorance of law
§6 Retroactivity of laws
In absence of contrary legislative expression, substantive law apply prospectively only. Procedural and interpretative laws apply both prospectively and retroactively, unless there is legislative expression to the contrary.
§7 Laws for the preservation of public interest
Persons may not by their juridical acts derogate from laws enacted for the protection of the public interest. Any act in derogation of such laws is an absolute nullity.
§8 Laws for the preservation of the public interest
Laws are repealed, either entirely or partially, by other laws
§9 Clear and unambiguous law
When a law is clear and unambiguous and its application does not lead to absurd circumstances, the law shall be applied as written and no further interpretation may be made in search of the intent of legislation
§10 Language susceptible of different meanings
When the language of the law is susceptible to different meanings, it must be interpreted as having the meaning that best conforms to the purpose of the law.
§11 Meaning of words
The words of law must be given their generally prevailing meaning. Words of art and technical terms must be given their technical meaning when the law involves a technical matter
§ 12 Ambiguous words
When the text of the law is ambiguous you use logical and contextual interpretation
