Is It Better to be Good than Lawful? A Critical Analysis of Austinian Legal Positivism in the Philippine Legal and Jurisprudential Systems

Abstract

The degree of dissonance in public opinion as regards the efficiency, or lack thereof, of the present administration has been growing by the day. From the most magnanimous of issues, like pandemic response, to the minutest, such as how the President has constantly picked up petty quarrels with the opposition by cursing them on nationally televised appearances, the general public has been at the brink of utter discord on how to accept the actions (even inactions) of the sitting administration.

This divide in public opinion has only been heightened with the decision of Congress on 10 July 2020, after months of exhaustive and comprehensive hearings, to deny the grant of franchise to the multi-media and broadcast giant, ABSCBN, at a time when the surge of the pandemic is climbing at its summit. On the one hand, there are those who believe that this is simply an assertion of the supremacy of Philippine legal system in application and interpretation, given the perceived violations of ABS-CBN of some domestic laws and even the restrictions of their previous franchise; on the other hand, some construed this is nothing more than a stubborn flexing of the administration’s institutional muscles to bring down its opponents and suppress views that are adversarial to the government.

And while ideally, the harmonization of both law and morality (or justice) ought to be the goal of every State, the differences in the interpretation of the concept of morality, as well as diversity in culture and tradition. This dilemma between law and justice, legality and morality, has been the subject of a long line of philosophical and sociological debates, as well as an amusing source of confusion in the varying (sometimes even conflicting) decisions of the Philippine courts in the interpretation and application of laws. Ultimately, the question boils down into the legitimacy of laws. 

For this purpose, the researcher will focus on legal positivism from the perspective of John Austin to address the aforementioned dilemma.