Ateneo School of Law

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The Ateneo School of Law is the law school of the Ateneo de Manila University, a private Jesuit university in the Philippines. It was founded in 1936, in the Padre Faura, Manila campus of the Ateneo, where it remained even after the college, graduate school, and basic education units moved to Loyola Heights in the 1950s. In 1977, it moved to Salcedo Village in Makati City, and in 1998, transferred to its present location in Makati's Rockwell Center. Its current Dean is alumnus Cesar L. Villanueva.

1 The Ateneo Law Program
2 History
3 Centers
4 Performance in the bar examinations
5 See also
6 External link

[edit] The Ateneo Law Program

The Ateneo Law School offers a complete 4-year program leading to the degree of Juris Doctor (J.D.). The J.D. degree was first conferred on the School Year 1990-1991 graduates. The Ateneo was the first law school in the Philippines to offer the J.D. in lieu of the Bachelor of Laws degree, which is still what most law schools in the Philippines offer today.

The Ateneo JD program covers the different aspects of legal study required for admission to the practice of law. Among the key subjects are constitutional and political law, civil law, criminal law, remedial law, commercial law, international law, tax law, and legal ethics. There is a particular emphasis on legal and judicial ethics, with subjects on legal philosophy and history, legal profession, theology and Church social teachings, and ethics being part of the core Ateneo law program.

In addition to these courses, students are required to undergo an apprenticeship program where junior and senior students get to appear in first level courts and work with other Ateneo law alumni on cases for marginalized sectors of the country. Students are also exposed to work with law firms, government agencies, public or private legal assistance agencies, courts in the Philippines, and work in the Ateneo's own Human Rights Center and Legal Aid Office.

Students are also allowed to customize a part of their studies through a requirement to choose elective subjects from a pool of offerings spanning a broad range of legal and social interests.

As one of the final requirements, Ateneo law students are also required to prepare and defend a thesis on a novel and exigient subject of law. The work on the thesis culminates in the fourth year of studies, under the supervision of a faculty adviser.

[edit] History

Deans of the Ateneo School of Law

Justice Manuel Lim, 1936 – 1941

Deogracias T. Reyes, 1948 -1958

Jeremias U. Montemayor, 1958 - 1967

Justice Pompeyo Diaz, 1967 - 1974

Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J., 1974 - 1976

Judge Jesus de Veyra, 1976 - 1981

Judge Simeon Ferrer, 1981 - 1984

Eduardo de los Angeles, 1984 - 1990

Cynthia Roxas-del Castillo, 1990 - 2000

Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J., 2000 - 2004

Cesar L. Villanueva, 2004 - present

The Ateneo de Manila opened its Law School on June 6, 1936, with Ateneo alumnus Manuel Lim as its first Dean. Freshmen and Sophomore classes, and eventually, junior and senior classes were opened. In 1939, the first Ateneo law graduates took the Bar Examinations. In 1940, the Ateneo Law School produced its first bar topnotcher, Claudio M. Teehankee, who would eventually become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in 1986.

The School closed in 1941 as a result of the outbreak of the Second World War. The destruction of its facilities caused by the battle for the liberation of Manila delayed the resumption of classes after the war. It reopened in Padre Faura in 1948, with classes held in quonset huts.

The School remained at Padre Faura as other units of the Ateneo moved to Loyola Heights in Quezon City in January, 1952. A concrete building was constructed in the Padre Faura campus, where classes were held until 1977. In June 1977, the Law School transferred to a new location at the Ateneo Professional Schools Building along H.V. de la Costa St. in Salcedo Village, Makati City.

In October, 1986, the Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC). It was formally integrated into the Law School in 1996 and began to handle the Ateneo Legal Aid Program.

In 1984 until 1990, the School began work on restructuring the law program under the supervision of Dean Eduardo delos Angeles, and applied for government approval to confer the degree of Juris Doctor. The development, implementation, and growth happened in the term of Dean Cynthia del Castillo, which began in 1990. In 1991, the School conferred the Juris Doctor degree.

In the latter part of 1998, the Law School transferred to its present location at the Ateneo Professional Schools Building at the Rockwell Center in Makati City. That same year, the Center for Continuing Legal Education (CCLE) was created as a special unit to provide a venue for continuing legal education programs for the active Bench and Bar as required by the Supreme Court.

On July 1, 2000, the Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law (TCRL) was inaugurated. In the same year, constitutionalist and former Ateneo de Manila University President Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J. reassumed the position of Dean, which he previously held from 1974-1976.

In 2004, the School formally launched the Ateneo Legal Services Center.

[edit] Centers

[edit] Ateneo Human Rights Center

The Ateneo Human Rights Center works on the Ateneo's advocacy work for victims of human rights violations and for causes of women and children. Its range of human rights concerns is handled by its MIgrants' Desk, Women's Desk, Katutubo (Indigenous Peoples) Desk, and initiatives such as the Adhikain para sa Karapatang Pambata (AKAP), the Working Group for n Asean Human Rights Mechanism, Paralegal Training and Education, and its Summer Internship Program (SIP). It is an active member of the Alternative Law Group, Inc., and the Makati Integrated Jail Group, among others.

[edit] Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law

The Teehankee Center is a student-based research and policy organization of the Ateneo Law School, supported by the Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee foundation.It is divoted o the study of the rule of law, a legal philosophy that seeks to address the question of how to build a society and country governed by stable and reasoned laws and policies, and where the needs of economic development and individual freedoms are balanced. The Center arranges fora for scholars, members of academe, and political and business leaders. Its lectures and fora focus on rule of law issues involving ethics and the legal profession, economic development and constitiutional principles, judicial history, and legal theory.

[edit] Ateneo Law School Legal Services Center

Formerly the Legal Aid Office of the Ateneo Human Rights Center, the ALS Legal Services Center (ALSC) was set up to expand the opportunity of Ateneo law students to take part in the School's legal aid and related programs, rendering service to indigent clients and children, as well as to expose Ateneo law students to alternative lawyering.

[edit] Center for Continuing Legal Education and Research

The Center provides lawyers complied with the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education regulations of the Supreme Court, as well as seminars and courses covering contemporaneous developments in the legal field.

[edit] Performance in the bar examinations

The school has been successful in its education of lawyers since its foundation, as measured by the performance of Ateneo graduates in the bar examinations. Ever since the institution of the JD program, the Ateneo has managed to produce most of the examinees who make it to the top 10. It has also managed to maintain the highest average passing percentage in this period.

In 2004, 112 out of 117 Ateneo law graduates passed the Bar Exam with the school attaining a passing average of 95.72%. The national passing average is 31.61%, with the reported passing rates of the next best two law schools are 90.8% and 86% respectively.