i still have my International Law hangovers. i just can't simply take them away from my system. maybe because i have a strong memory. or maybe because the subject has reshaped my study habits and reorganized my "body politics"--my biopsychological clock. or maybe because the subject caused me insomnia. upto now, i still can't forget the gist of the following cases:
Kuroda v. Jalandoni; Co Kim Cham v. Valdez Tan Keh; Gonzalez v. Hechanova; Ichong v. Hernandez; Thirty Hogshead of Sugar v. Boyle; People v. Perfecto; Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic v. Cibrario; Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino; Oetjen v. Central Leather Co.; Island of PAlmas Case; Clipperton Island Case; Fisheries Case; Underhill v. Hernandez; US v. Look Chaw; People v. Wong Cheng; The Lotus Case; WHO v. Aquino; Holy See v. Rosario; Tanada v. Angara; US v. Austria and Hungary; Canevaro Case; The Nottebohm Case; Chatin Case; Noyes Case; US v. Mexico; Harvey v. Santiago; Savarkar Case; Yamashita v. Styer; Haw Pia v. China Banking Corporation; and Banaag v. Singson.
International Law is a terrible subject. For you to be good, you need a good background in International Relations, International Organizations, Comparative Government, World History, Political Theories, and the polSci basics. for you to excel, never concentrate on one book only. you have to have at least three---International Law by Isagani Cruz, Public Intenational LAw by Salonga and Yap, and the one authored by Miriam Santiago. for you to pass the quiz, learn how to write expeditiously and try finishing the 10-page semi-bar test type in 30 minutes or less. your penmanship must be readable to begin with, or else you will end up looking for your testpaper in Payatas! always maintain grace under pressure. secondly, you need to give appropriate answers or you'll gladly see
ekis ekis, huge red criss-crosses on your sheet with feedbacks from your prof like: "WHAAAAT!!!!" or "GO TO HELL!" or "INCOMPLETE" or even the most
malulutong pambababoys like: "WALA AKONG TINURONG GANYAN" or ISAKSAK MO TO SA BAGA MO" or "TINIMBANG KA NGUNIT KULANG". you have to be polite in answering as well. for instance, when your ideas overflow on the frontpage, don't just simply write: "SEE BACK PAGE" or "AT THE BACK"(with arrows). you have to write it like: "see back page PLEASE!!" or "at the back PLEASE" . the word PLEASE is absolutely indispensable. it's obligatory especially when your prof is
sobrang old.OOOPS!!! you can't come to class unprepared. i mean, you don't just have to read...you have to memorize, analyze, and dramatize. if your mind is a
tabula rasa prior to the class, silence is the next best state to be. but if your ideas overflow, be noisy so the prof will call you as a consequence and thereafter will saute you in
one-to-sawa recitation.
TAKE NOTE! there is no valid excuse available for any absence a student makes. one count of absence is equal to a 'dropped status'. that is why my classmates
verbally kill their parents and immediate relatives only to justify their absences. but still this is excuse is lame. the only valid excuse i can think of is your own death. WAIT! even your own death can't help you pass the subject because it assumes that when you die, you gain even at least 1% propensity of passing. i mean, yeah, you can't survive academically without first surviving physically. :-(
NEXT!!! you need to subject your self to humiliations as early as possible so that in the end, you may put others in the same spotlight too...and that includes your PROF. when my professor observed that i'm kinda good, intelligent, and studious, he became so appreciative and he bestowed me "immunity from humiliation". i took advantage and practised the Art and Science of Vengeance against him. one bad hair day, he asked me, "Ms. Aguinaldo, Do you have a Sharpener?" . i indirectly answered him, "Mechanical pencil po lapis ko sir". then he asked, "May pantasa ka ng mechanical pencil?". i whispered, " TANGA". my classmates heard me and they laughed.
di naman siguro ako narinig ni sir diba? though i know it's too unethical. another instance was when he returned an unrecorded testpaper one Feb day with a comment on the 7th page right beside an encircled paragraph saying: GO TO HELL! the point is: maybe my answer was inappropriate, or maybe i was arguing in circles, or maybe my answer was totally pointless and stupid.
NAGPANTIG ANG TENGA KO! and i wrote: "GO WITH ME" at the top of his comment. i almost shed blood studying for the test and i feel i don't deserve such incivilized comments. he asked the papers back so he could record the scores. the hell i care if he did read my comments!!!
OOOOOOOPPPPS!!!! you can't afford to cheat as well. i mean...the prof knows all forms and sizes, aspects and facets of traditional cheating. when you're caught, you might end up seeing comments on your paper like: YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A SECOND RATE TRYING HARD COPYCAT! well, i have news for you! my classmates have introduced a breakthrough in cheating technology. i mean yeah,
pangogngodigo is passe. let us make use of the technology we have today. all you need is a black headset plus a cellphone with MP3 or voice recorder. simply record the chapters and the cases you expect to come out. clean your ears. place your phone on your pocket and wear your headset. your headset wire must be underneath your clothes. your headset will then dictate you the answers. lastly, MAKE LUGAY!
one must observe the standards of classroom GEOPOLITICS---the cheating and seating arrangement. this is how geography affects the political conditions of the students...
seated in front---first from left is the MONARCH--this is me!. along with the monarch are the BIG FOUR. only these students have the guts to sit in front. seated next to the monarch+big 4 are the" lobbyists" headed by Joshua with Angela as the deputy. they lobby for support from the frontliners. they are sometimes referred to as "timawas" or freemen because they get everything for free . at the back of them are the "chairmen" who cheat answers through the vandals on their chairs. Seated at the very back are the "cool dudes" who look cool for they are the technological/electronic cheaters. they look like rockers but they cheat thru their ears not thru their eyes. GEOPOLITICS can never be completed without alliances and counteralliances. you will learn that birds of the same feathers...are the same birds. there exist the CAPITALISTS(laissez-faire or let-alone) mentalities; the COMMUNISTS(common-answer) mentalities; and the SOCIALISTS("i'll-share-you-a-few-but-not-the-major-ones") mentalities. i was a SOCIALIST during the first 2 quizzes because being a tank of answers is quite flattering. but i eventually became a CAPITALIST believing that learning can only be done through a "private enterprise of hardwork". cheating for me is the cheapest thing on earth. i mean, you can accuse me of arson, sedition, conspiracy to commit rebellion, destierro, homicide, and treason but not cheating during exams. all my life, i never cheated on someone, what more on myself?. but honestly, i attempted technological cheating though. one day, all the materials had been prepared as planned. i had recorded chapters 10-12 plus five cases. when i was seated, i could hardly hear whatever my headset dictates me because of the noisy ABS-CBN helicopter roaming within the vicinity of FEU exercising its "5 air freedoms". it was Quiapo day
kase and the aircraft might had documented the event.
CORRECTION! if cheating was a crime in that situation, it would be on the frustrated stage
na but not attempted because all the acts have been produced and could have resulted to a felony as a consequence but was not produced because of a circumstance independent of my will. whether the situation is attempted or frustrated is immaterial. the thing is: IT WAS NOT CONSUMMATED... i am still a virgin in the crime of consummated cheating. WHOOOOH!! i cannot blame the cheaters. you can't memorize 3 chapters plus five cases in 2 nights only.
learning International Law is fun. you'll learn a lot of things esp when your ignorant like me. you will learn that the Concert of Europe is not actually musical. that the Treaty of Versailles is pronounced as "Versai". that the Cuban Missile Crisis was not about missile shortages. that the Dogger Bank Case was not about dogs. that ma'am Reyes made friends with the Korean soldiers after the Korean War. that she was in the states when Martin Luther King delivered "i have a dream"...that she was right beside Martin's assasin at the same time... that she was warned by Stalin and Trotsky for intoxication...and that after the Cold War, she made 'rubbing elbows' with Mikhail Gorbachev in Kremlin...that her nephew is working in the White House as a Chef Cook...that she has a resthouse in the Gaza Strip...and that she was in Kuwait during the Gulf War...and that Atty. Zamora was in Switzerland when it was fully admitted to the United NAtions...huh!
and
and and more than that...
there is a difference between collusion and collision--- that the former is what we do during exams and the latter is what we do at nyt in SOGO. JOKE!!!
MORE IMPORTANTLY! one may become a Latin girl at an instant. pseudo-latin-girl. one may learn phrases
like pacta sunt servanda, rebus sic stantibus, terra nullius, animus revertendi, animus occupandi, jus postliminium, par en parem non habet imperium, accesio cedat principalii. res nullius, res communes, persona non grataSame; same; same thing happens when you study Civil and Criminal LAws. you'll learn maxims like
lex loci celebrationis, dura lex sed lex, nullum crimen nulla poena sine lege, stare decisis, res gestae, obiter dicta, ignorantiam legis non excusat, ex post facto(though i learned this in Phil Consti Law), articulo mortis, and a lot more.
civil law for me is the toughest among the three. though i only studied book 1---Persons and Family Relations. i found it hard to digest Civil Cases. stories take years and a lot of issues have to be settled and understood...like you have to determine the validity of the marriage first and then identify the legitimacy of the children, then identify how much of the testate/intestate successions shall each receive.
sakit sa ulo pa pag may anak sa labas at may first wife pa pala na ikinasal sa china proven by matrimonial cards as in the case
Adong v. Cheong Seng Gee, 43 Phil 43 and Sy Joc Lieng v. Sy Quia, 16 Phil 137. the latter is the longest one i've ever read. it contains 147 pages. the first one na nadigest ko is
Tanada v. Tuvera, 146 SCRA 446. i could hardly grasp the issues. the case contains a lot of "same;same;same" at the onset of every paragraph. but its issue is just about publication of laws in the Official Gazzette for effectivity.
I like Criminal Cases over Civil ones. they are too short. they don't usually exceed 30 pages in length. but you still need to familiarize the dissenting ang concurring opinions. the prof may also ask you to differentiate all cases. the only migraine-causing drama in Crim Law is when you have to know all aggravating, mitigating, justifying, exempting, and qualifying circumstances affecting criminal liability. you also have to know all the elements constituting crimes...know the general rule, exception to the general rule, exception to the exception, and exception to the exception to the exception. you also need to know the punishment intended for the crime and its duration.
the difficulty in passing a law subject is not only confined within the subject itself. i mean...there are a lot of concomitant factors contributing to a student's loss of verve for the subject. i'l only mention one factor. let's talk about the law librarians and the role they play in molding a student's behavior. since 2003, the law section has divorced from the FEU Main Library. since then, the law books were under the custody of the Law Library--located at the 4th floor of the Institute of LAw. in the same building, there are 2 photocopying centers--4th and ground floors. however, these shitty law students have the capacity to monopolize the 10 photocs centers all throughout FEU including the ones in Arts, Sciences, Business, and Education. i am overwhelmed by the dual-standard thing they have in the Law Library. undergarads are often discriminated like you can't take home volumes of SCRA...that you can only take out a maximum of 5 books for photocs..and oh! when you take these books out for photocs, you only have 5 minutes to do so. having due respect for the "oldhood", i followed these rules. i borrowed 5 books and promised to return within the prescribed time. i went out of the lib and told the xerox girl, "ate paphotocopy po". there was a band of fratmen within the circumference of the xerox machine. one said, "BWAL ANG UNDERGRAD DITO. DUN KA SA BABA". i was wearing a three-inch heeled strappy shoes. the building does not have a lift and i can't afford to go downstairs with 5 hardbound books. i told him, "KUYA PIPILA NA LANG PO AKO". a girl said, "TIGAS NG ULO NG MGA UNDERGRAD! THIS ONE'S FOR LAW STUDENTS LANG. DUN KA SA BABA". i went downstairs instead and had the cases photocopied at the Arts Building because it was the the only "non-box office center". luckily it's done. when i came back the hostile librarian got angry because the 5 minutes had elapsed. she told me, "next time wag ka ng humiram if you can't return books on time". this situation never deterred me from coming back.
LAW SUBJECTS ARE GENERALLY INTERESTING. they mirror multiple human realities. for instance, a man necessarily kills another even without the intention only because of extreme paranoia. (people v. ah chong)...that in the process of robbery,
at naiingayan ka sa biktima, salpakan mo ng pandesal sa bibig(people v. opero, 105 SCRA 40)...that because of an irrational fear, a state tends to attack a foreign ship even w/out scrutiny(the dogger bank case)...that by being an usisero sa mga nag-aaway, you may get killed(people v. Bindoy, 56 Phil 15)
there are laws because we want to achieve order. we want to achieve order because there are natural human conflicts. there are conflicts because there is competition. inter-personal competition is a human nature.
i wanna take up Bachelor of LAws someday. definitely not in FEU. i need a new environment. i don't wanna see same guards, same canteen girls, same janitors, same elevator operators, same xerox girls, same president, same osacs dean, and same librarians.
One LAW OF NATURE says: KEEP MOVING, KEEP CHANGING, and GET OVER...this is the path leading to maturity. in order for us to develop, we need to mature and that entails going out of our comfort zones and undoing the things we used to do. learn from the past, put verve in everything we do, and face the future with courage. this is the law i used to and will forever abide.
THE LAW MAY BE HARD BUT IT IS STILL THE LAW...
