The Judicial Failsafe: American Legal Colonialism in the Philippines

Abstract

Abstract This article evaluates the history of the Filipino judiciary during the period of US rule. It argues that colonial officials used the legal system to ensure US control over the islands by initiating a judicial transition, which contained a series of procedures guaranteeing US officials the power to overrule insular courts or legislatures. The judicial transition refers to the long-term transformation of Filipino law from the Spanish civil law system to an Anglo-American common law system through implementing a new code of civil procedure, changing the official language of legal proceedings to English, and importing US judges to the islands during the first part of the twentieth century. This transition masked a failsafe, which ensured that colonial administrators would retain power despite promises to cede control to the local population. Elements of this failsafe included maintaining a US majority on the Supreme Court of the Philippines, empowering the US Supreme Court to review and overturn decisions of the Filipino Supreme Court, and barring Filipino courts from ruling on matters of importance to the US government such as admiralty cases. The article contends that when taken together, this transition and failsafe constitute a strategy for the United States to maintain substantial control over the Philippines while still maintaining the facade of the benevolent colonizer.