Beyond the Dotted Lines of his Archipelago Preparing the Filipino Law student for the Global Legal Market

Maria Reylan M. Garcia

University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental When Carlos Celdran paraded inside the Manila Cathedral in 2010 clutching a sign with

the word Damaso, he was betrayed by his reliance to free speech. He was found guilty violating Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code (offending religious feelings) and sentenced to imprisonment. If Celdran committed the same act in England or Wales, he would have enjoyed the night yonder with a mug of beer – a free man. In 2008, the House of Lords abolished the common law offense of blasphemy in England and Wales. Contrasting national legislations and doctrines such as blasphemy laws further avulse the apparently struggling law student to even the most fundamental concepts of International Law.

Studying concentrically is a more comfortable pattern for the Filipino Law student. Although he recognizes the territorial overlap of legal jurisdictions, he prevents himself from being too engrossed, as comprehending Philippine Law and Jurisprudence already required of him more than reasonable diligence. The hard-earned familiarity of how constitutional principles unmasked the illegalities of the Marcos dictatorship infringes academic enthusiasm on the prosecution and extradition discourse on Chilean Augusto Pinochet.

Amid the inhibitions, issues on legal globalization nevertheless demands greater attention – now that Philippines herself is involved in territorial disputes; that economic partnerships with foreign states are more frequently entered into; that crimes against humanity brought about by interracial wars have victimized a considerable number of Filipinos abroad. The ancient Roman legal system has foreseen the interweaving of laws among states breeding conflicts that they have conceptualized jus gentium. This proves that as early as the most rustic of legal concepts, a state cannot confine itself in its own laws for it truly belongs in a community of nations.

Thus, preparing the Filipino law student for a wider legal market is not only an

impending task but also an inevitable duty. Such task and duty are, however, not lodged solely on the law school and her educators. Preparing the law student for legal globalization is a two-way feat.

The Filipino law student is intimidated by the idea of zooming in his periscope to lands beyond, because familiarity is comfort. But this same comfort is not exclusive to the Revised Penal Code or the Civil Code of the Philippines. This same comfort can be recreated with international law if only the law student will struggle to breed familiarity with it. Periodically reading headlines from global news dailies will expose him to the global landscape and will eventually bring him to identify relevant inter-country conflicts and agreements. Consequently, this newly-found awareness will predispose questions and the need to clarify. These same

questions can become opportunities to scan books, journals and jurisprudence on relevant international laws. An internal and perceptive transformation is required of the law student.

Despite the courses on international law offered in the curriculum, the stimuli may not be enough to render the law student fully cognizant of the scope of the global legal market. He will still, at some point, be overwhelmed. Thus, the world calls for a more recurrent integration of international law concepts into subjects anchored by territoriality. A lecture about the lifting of death penalty in the country’s criminal system may be discussed in the light of the numerous overseas Filipinos hanged, drugged or electrocuted to death for violating a foreign law. It will not be difficult to interweave concepts - finding what to consolidate as well as indentifying nuances - since most of our staple laws are products of foreign influences. Corollary to the new barrage of theory must be an opportunity to witness its application - visiting scholarships with intergovernmental institutions or even the possibility of internship therein. Although virtually a paradigm shift, preparing the Filipino Law student to thrive beyond the dotted lines of his archipelago will not be as backbreaking. After all, with a culture branded as a melting pot, the Filipino law student has the better odds for an international career.

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