IV. The Relationship Between International
Law and the Philippine Constitution
In any event, the Philippines is bound
part of the law of the land. There is no
by its international obligations both as
need
a matter of international law, and as a
otherwise,
matter of domestic
Philippines.
law.
for
point,
Philippine
international
principles
has
been
Philippine
first laid down
Constitution.
the
and
1987
The
present
Constitution
law
national
accepted
war
in
the
same
policy,
an
(such
principles
of
as
Philippine
the
on
this
the
declared
that
customary
of
the
innocent
corpus
Thusly,
is not bound
of
Philippine
to pass a law
for the principle to apply.
of
While there have been arguments that
generally
the Philippines is a monist state, even
international
if the Philippines were to be considered
the
a dualist state
adheres
generally
the
the
“automatically
law.”
law as part of the law of the land and
to
in
Ermita,
right
or
Philippines
instrument
adopts
.
of international
incorporated
has
case
Supreme
is
“[t]he
as
recent
passage)
According to Article Il, Section 2 of the
renounces
In a
provision
in
valid
applicable
law
Congress
Constitution,
be
in the 1935
tenor as the 1935 Constitution.
1987
to
law,
Magallona
The relationship between (customary)
law
treaty
policy
of
peace,
justice,
freedom,
international
cooperation,
and
with
enablements),
all
that
nations.”
does
automatically
equality,
amity
(one which
law
the
it
without
is
applies
domestic
beyond
Philippine
not
doubt
Constitution
is explicit in its treatment of customary
The
Philippine
Supreme
Court
has
low.
consistently held that customary law is
law
39
When
it
(as
comes
to
customary
opposed
to