Midterms and moving on

Midterm exams are done! It is time to move on for the next half of the semester.

However, as much as I want to move on, this feeling of profound academic frustration consumes so much of my thoughts. I share this feeling to all my classmates who just went through the obligations and contracts exam. We learned the fact that memorizing the codal is not enough and is never enough. When you study the law, study EVERYTHING. Practically, study the cases to see how these laws are applied.

When I opened the questioner, my mind went momentarily blank after reading the long narration of facts. I do not know where to start. So deconstructing the problem helps by making diagrams. I still find the effort of breaking it down futile since some terms are just pure alien. In a desperate attempt to write something, I just threw all the provisions I know that would probably apply on the broken down facts. The rest is history. 

 The law is indeed a jealous mistress and it is in these exams that she tests your fidelity and dedication to her.

 Nonetheless, all of these are implied the moment we’ve decided to enter law school. So let us just clear the dust off our shoulders and prepare ourselves for the next half of the battle. 

I am a freshman in Law School. These are just elementary rantings.

Bar Qs are helpful

I just have to share. Two bar exam subjects are done namely Criminal Law 2 and Constitutional Law 2. If I’ve just started reviewing a month before the midterms and cover almost all cases and bar questions, results I guess will far be better. It would really help that aside from the normal course of readings, we have to always familiarize ourselves with how bar questions are being constructed. Even though the Bar is 60% in MCQ form, this will also help is a certain way how we analyze questions. And the best part, some professors might just pick up their questions from the previous Bar Qs. 

Need of this world – Justice

It has been said that your vocation is the intersection between your deepest personal desires and the world’s greatest need. Vocation or calling is your place in the greater scheme of things where ultimately, your joy lies.

In the course of my life, I’ve always placed this graphical representation of vocation at a dominant position in my daily thought and reflection. More so now that my journey towards what I believe is my professional calling has started. My only nugget of wisdom that I can share is that the ultimate source of motivation should lay not so much on the potential prestige and worldly honor this profession supposedly holds rather it should properly lay on that intrinsic personal desire to cultivate a character and competency that can effectively meet a need of this world – justice.

I keep putting this in my head and it serves as a guiding compass for me in how to approach the things I do from my engagements to my studies. So for us students of the law, though we run a daily life filed with mental and emotional challenges, we should never lose sight on this fundamental and ideal framework of living. Study not just for yourself, study for others.  

The 3-way test: Prepare your weapons for battle

Midterms once again! In Law school, you need to reckon essentially with three forms of examination. The first one is the daily oral examination by means of Socratic Method where we are subject to the sadistic barrage of questions made by the gods to make us realize how inadequate our understanding of the Law is. The second one is the midterm examinations which would test how well we can recall, apply and articulate the law which we just happened to begin absorbing a week before. Lastly, the Finals were we invoke divine intervention and summon all the beautiful and truthful things of this world for the final battle of survival. The 3-way test: Prepare your weapons for battle. 

Right to Social Security

In our International Humanitarian Rights class practicum, we are assigned to engage the Labor sector to help out in some of its legal issues. Since this sector is too broad, we chose to focus on a sub-sector which we encounter in our daily commute- the jeepney drivers. This sector, after our general investigation, is encountering numerous legal issues that the group might be overwhelmed if we tackle each. To avert stretching our efforts too thinly, we chose a particular concern present in this sector namely their concern over their SSS benefits. 

Corollary to their rights as workers is also their right to social security.  

With the help of the Alliance for Progressive Labor, we were linked with the Association of Jeepney drivers and operators of Barangay Bonbon. To enable them to resolve pertinent queries regarding the value of SSS, we facilitated a small forum with the operators and the SSS field officers for an afternoon of input and forum.  It was a fruitful exchange of information which led the jeepney organization to assert their rights of social security from their operators which were left ignored before. 

In sum, the whole experience made me realize that the study of law is more than just the textual appreciation of it. It calls us to see the law on what it is in its very essence which is the reflection of how we see ourselves and our worth as human beings and our concept of what is right and wrong. The SSS is an institution which serves the people of their right to social security. And as an entity created by law, it serves as a reflection of our concept of social justice, dignity of human effort and the security we deserve after a fruitful life of labor. It is exciting for me to be part of that whole process of animating that right into something real and tangible in the lives of the jeepney drivers even how small and simple it is.