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.
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[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 also \customize a part of their studies by choosing elective courses 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. The Center assigns law students work with human rights organizations in the Philippines, conducts training seminars for the benefit of government and non-government organizations and grass-root communities through its internship programs. It also publishes a monthly newsletter.
[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 to 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. It also holds the collection of legal and private papers of Chief Justice Teehankee. The Center seeks to build on the collection through the contribution of leading lawyers and academicians as ably assisted by various research volunteers in fields such as the Rule of Law and Legal Theory, Constitutional Law, E-commerce, International Law, Development Law, and other legal issues.
[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] Campus life
[edit] Facilities
The Law School is housed in the Ateneo Professional Schools Building located at the Rockwell Center in Makati City. The APS Building is a modern, fully-wired four-storey building with three-level basement parking, equipped with facilities and features designed to maximize learning, research, and teaching.
The ground floor features an atrium, an outdoor quadrangle, the APS chapel, a cafeteria, and some administration offices. Also located on the ground floor are the Law Thesis Office, Ateneo Human Rights Center, and Law Students Activity Center.
Housed on the third floor are the Law School Administration offices, Law School Center for Continuing Legal Education, the Ateneo Legal Services Center, Law School Publications Center, Law School. There are also two small bridgeways connecting the two wings of the building, which allow small discussion groups to assemble.
On the north wing of the fourth floor are the Teehankee Special Collection, the Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law Reading Room, the 102-seat Veritas Amphitheater, the 125-seat Justitia Moot Court, and a roofdeck.
The Ateneo Law Library collections are located in the Ateneo Professional Schools Library at the building's first basement level. The APS Auditorium is also located on the first basement level, while the rest of the basement floors are parking facilities for the exclusive use of the Ateneo community.
[edit] Library
The Ateneo Law Library collection forms part of the Ateneo Professional Schools Library, located on the first basement level. The Law Library contains one of the most comprehensive collections of law books in the Philippines. Among the holdings are complete sets of Philippine Statutes, law reports, digests and treaties, and also published and unpublished Ateneo J.D. theses. Also in the library are copies the leading law encyclopedias, reports, digests, references, and treatises of the United States and Spain, as well as an extensive collection of books and treatises on Constitutional Law and Government. The multi-volume Philippine Reports, Supreme Court Reports Annotated, and other materials, and the Ateneo Graduate School of Business Theses are also available. The library's collection of books on human rights, local and foreign legal periodicals, including loose-leaf services from the Commercial Clearing House (CCH) and Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), is one of the largest in the country.
A collection of non-print materials also forms the bulk of resources of the Library.
The library also offers materials on microfiche, a computerized catalogue of books and reported cases, video-format instructional materials, and photocopying and computer facilities.
The resources and facilities of the University Library system, which include the Rizal Library in the Ateneo de Manila's Loyola Heights campus, are likewise available to Ateneo Law students.
[edit] Student Organizations
The Law School is home to numerous student organizations, aside from the Student Council. These organizations span a number of interests and activities. They include:
- Ateneo Central Bar Operations - The student arm in charge of mobilizing student activities to help Ateneo Law School alumni when they take the annual Bar Examinations. Its activities include providing study materials, organizing hotel accomodations, and other support activities exclusively for Ateneo bar examinees. The organization has been instrumental in the Ateneo's consistent standing in the annual Bar Examinations.
- Ateneo Human Rights Center
- Ateneo Law Journal - The Ateneo de Manila Unicversity's official law journal, the ALJ publishes quarterly issues featuring research, reviews of jurisprudence, commentaries, and selected student writings.
- Ateneo Law School Choir - Members of the Choir sing at the regular Saturday masses at the APS chapel, and participate in other student activities.
- Ateneo Law School Scholarship Foundation - The Foundation helps students secure financial aid in order to allow them to pursue their law studies at the Ateneo.
- Ateneo Society of International Law - The Society is the official administrator of moot court competitions of the Ateneo School of Law. It takes charge of training and sending teams to variousinternational competitions on public international law, international humanitarian law, and international commerce arbitration. The Society has repeatedly reaped awards for Best Memorial, Best Oralist, and Best Team in various competitions, most notably the Philip Jessup Moot Court Competition.
- Campus Ministry Office Volunteers - The Campus Ministry Volunteers help foster prayer life among the members of the community. Its members serve during the regular celebrations of the Mass and during retreats.
- Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law
- Environmental Law Society of the Ateneo - ELSA is a student advocacy group working with other NGO’s such as ULAN, WWF, Greenpeace, and other groups to develop ways by which the student body can expose itself to environmental issues and the treasures of the environment.
- Salsa - A dance organization at the Law School.
- St. Thomas More Debate Society - A debate society at the Law School. It also vies with the Ateneo Society of International Law for the chance to represent the Ateneo at the Jessup moot court competition.
- The Forum - The official yearbook of the Law School.
- The Palladium - The Palladium is the official student publication of the Ateneo School of Law. It currently publishes a regular news magazine. In the past, it published its material in a regular newspaper.
[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.
[edit] External link
| Ateneo de Manila University |
| Professional schools: Graduate School of Business | School of Government | School of Law | School of Medicine and Public Health |
| Loyola Schools: School of Humanities | John Gokongwei School of Management | School of Science and Engineering | School of Social Sciences |
| Basic education units: Grade school | High school | Sports: Ateneo Blue Eagles |
