Bar Q & A Civil Law Review

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers essential legal doctrines, property regimes, and civil law concepts based on the 2009-2022 Philippine Bar Examination Q&A materials.

Processual Presumption

The doctrine allowing a court to presume that foreign law is the same as local law when the foreign law is not properly pleaded or proven.

Reserva Troncal

A legal principle where an ascendant who inherits property from a descendant (who inherited it from another ascendant) is obliged to reserve said property for the benefit of relatives within the third degree belonging to the line from which the property came.

Psychological Incapacity

A legal ground for the nullity of marriage (Article 36) where a party is incapable of complying with essential marital obligations due to a personality structure existing at the time of the celebration of the marriage.

Legitimation

A remedy whereby children conceived and born outside of wedlock to parents not disqualified by any impediment to marry each other at the time of conception are considered legitimate upon the subsequent valid marriage of the parents.

Pactum Commissorium

A prohibited stipulation in a contract of pledge or mortgage where the creditor is allowed to automatically appropriate the thing given as security upon the debtor's default.

Dacion en Pago

A special mode of payment where property is alienated by the debtor to the creditor in satisfaction of a debt in money; it is governed by the law of sales.

Contract to Sell

A bilateral contract where the prospective seller reserves ownership of the property despite delivery and binds himself to sell it only upon full payment of the purchase price.

Usufruct

A right accorded to a person to enjoy the property of another with the obligation of preserving its form and substance, unless the title or the law provides otherwise.

Legal Subrogation

A process that takes place by operation of law, transferring to the person subrogated the credit with all the rights appertaining thereto, either against the debtor or third persons.

Mora Accipiendi

Delay on the part of the obligee or creditor in accepting the performance of the obligation by the debtor without just cause.

Accion Publiciana

A plenary action for the recovery of the real right of possession when the dispossession has lasted for more than one year.

Torrens System

A system of land registration where a government-issued certificate of title serves as indefeasible evidence of ownership.

Conjugal Partnership of Gains

A property regime where the husband and wife place in a common fund the proceeds, products, and income from their separate properties and those acquired through their efforts during the marriage.

Absolute Community of Property

The default property regime under the Family Code where all property owned by the spouses at the time of marriage or acquired thereafter becomes common property.

Preterition

The total omission of one, some, or all compulsory heirs in the direct line in a will, which results in the annulment of the institution of heirs.