Philippines : Criminal Law

The Philippines was a colony of Spain for 333 years, beginning in 1565 until 1898. Because of this, many fields of law in the Philippines such as Civil Law and Criminal Law follow a civil law tradition, as opposed to Commercial Law and Constitutional Law which follow a common law tradition.

When the Spanish Colonizers conquered the Philippines, the Spanish Codigo Penal was made applicable and extended to the Philippines by Royal Decree of 1870. This was replaced with the old Penal Code which was put in place by Spanish authorities and took effect in the Philippines on July 14, 1876. This law was effective in the Philippines until the American colonisation of the Philippines. It was only on December 8, 1930, when it was amended, under Act. No. 3815, with the enactment of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines (the “Revised Penal Code”).