By Atty. Eduardo T. Reyes III
On August 12th, the first semester of law school will begin. In September, those who have graduated from law school will be taking the bar exams. While both are of profound significance to law students, it is what happens in between that is at the core of this article.
Being both a professor of law and bar reviewer, this columnist teaches civil law to both the first years and those who have just graduated from law school.
Civil law begins with a person’s acquiring of legal personality. As a rule, one must be “born” to have legal personality (Article 40, New Civil Code). Yet to be deemed “born”, a foetus must be alive upon complete separation from the mother’s womb. If the foetus is premature (ie., has had an intra-uterine life of less than seven months), it must stay alive for 24 hours from complete separation from the mother’s womb (Article 41, New Civil Code).
The law inheres in every person from birth. The succeeding semesters will deal with obligations and contracts, property, sales, other special contracts like pledge and mortgage, and succession.
As law students embark on their journey in law school, they start to learn the principles that can apply to life.
Yet law school is not a walk in the park. The principles and concepts can become complex even as life itself becomes convoluted. The challenges begin to mount as the law students wade deeper into the study of law.
Coffee, with the option of having it hot or cold, is a usual companion of the law student in preparation for classes. Coffee shops are the law students’ comfort zone. The coming and going of people therein and the just enough noise serve as a healthy distraction that takes away the ennui as well as the drowsiness.
During recitations, the professors would have to apply the Socratic method in testing the depth of knowledge and understanding of the law by the students. As all their classmates listen to the answers, they too await for their names to be called and put on the spotlight.
Whether good or bad, a day (or night) of recitation usually deserves a cold beer. Pouring their sentiments into that bottle, the law students exchange notes, mostly about how they fared in the recitations. (And sometimes about their professors, too.)
This “ordeal” is one they have to face on a daily basis to include Saturdays. They only have Sundays to rest but even then, a studious law student would still take time on a Sunday afternoon to open their law books and read on in preparation for the coming week ahead.
Anxiety is a permanent thing to a law student. Yet in life, anxiety is a constant, too. Dealing with tension, anxiety, stress and their synonyms under the concept of ejusdem generis (those of the same kind) is the law student’s strength.
Four years after, the law students will face the daunting bar examinations. They would have to recapitulate everything they learned in law school. It is a test of knowledge even as it is a test of character.
This columnist would always tell the bar takers that it is in the bar examinations that they must give it their all. All their loves, frustrations, tears, joys, and every bit of emotion must be poured out. Passing the bar examinations will make a lifetime of difference for them and so they must do their best.
In the end, the study of law is a lesson for life. Justice Holmes once quipped that “the law must be taught in a grand manner.” Indeed, the law is grand and lawyers must not be anything less.
These are the lessons that are learned in law school. And they linger.
Forever.
(The author is the senior partner of ET Reyes III & Associates– a law firm based in Iloilo City. He is a litigation attorney, a law professor, MCLE lecturer, bar reviewer and a book author. His website is etriiilaw.com).
