12 - Legal Medicine 2026

Ordinary physician

Sees an injury or disease on the point of view of treatment

Medical jurist

Sees an injury or disease on the point of view of cause

Written or Statutory

Defined, codified, and incorporated by the law-making body

Constitutional law

Rights, privileges, and responsibilities that are from the Philippine Constitution

Administrative law

Law made by administrative bodies granted by the authority to act in this manner

Common law

Composed of the unwritten laws based on the immemorial customs and usages

Principle of Stare Decisis

A principle that when the court has once laid down a principle of law or interpretation to a certain set of facts, it will adhere to and apply it to all future cases

Criminal law

Defines crimes, treats of their nature, and provides for their punishment

Civil law

Regulates the relation of assistance, authority, and obedience between members of a family, members of a society, for the protection of private interests

Remedial law

Rules concerning pleadings

Special Law

Examples of such law include: Dangerous Drug Act, Youth and Child Welfare, Insurance Law

15 days

How many days are needed for a law to be implemented, along with it being published in the official gazette

Reclusion Perpetua

20 years and 1 day to 40 years imprisonment

Reclusion Temporal

12 years and 1 day to 20 years imprisonment

Prison Mayor

6 years and 1 day to 12 years

Prison Correccional

Suspension

Destierro

6 months and 1 day to 6 years

1 month and 1 day to 6 months

Arresto Mayor

1 day to 30 days

Arresto Menor

Justifying circumstance

A person who acts by virtue of which circumstance does not commit a crime in the eyes of the law

Exempting circumstances

There is a crime committed, but there is no criminal on account of the absence of free will and voluntariness to act

• Under 9 years old

• Over 9 years old and under 15 years old, unless acted with discernment

• Mere accident without fault or intention

• Acting under compulsion of irresistible force

• Under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear or an equal or greater injury

• Fails to perform an act required by law when prevented by some insuperable cause

What qualifies as an exempting circumstance?

Mitigating circumstances

Circumstances that lessen the penalty

Aggravating circumstances

Increase the penalty or qualify a crime to a graver one

Alternative circumstances

Can be aggravating or mitigating depending on the context (relationship, intoxication, degree of education)