Duty of the court, A5 Revised Penal Code

1. Concept

Duty of the court – the Revised Penal Code imposes certain duties over courts in connection with acts which should be repressed but which are not covered by the law.

a. Legal basis

Article 5. Duty of the court in connection with acts which should be repressed but which are not covered by the law, and in cases of excessive penalties. - Whenever a court has knowledge of any act which it may deem proper to repress and which is not punishable by law, it shall render the proper decision, and shall report to the Chief Executive, through the Department of Justice, the reasons which induce the court to believe that said act should be made the subject of legislation.

In the same way, the court shall submit to the Chief Executive, through the Department of Justice, such statement as may be deemed proper, without suspending the execution of the sentence, when a strict enforcement of the provisions of this Code would result in the imposition of a clearly excessive penalty, taking into consideration the degree of malice and the injury caused by the offense.

(Revised Penal Code)

2. Duty of the court

The following are the duties of the court under the Revised Penal Code.

a. Render decision

An act or omission is only a crime if there is a law punishing it.

Thus, if a court encounters a case which may be proper to repress or prohibit but is not currently punishable by law and thus not yet a crime, the court is duty-bound to render proper judgment base...