Beyond cavil of doubt

In my post last week (see here) I mentioned how I liked the use by Justice Callejo of the word irrefragably  in declaring that the crime at hand was murder, not kidnapping, but only for him to trip over the wrong Article.

We know that irrefragable means indisputable or beyond doubt. Two paragraphs after using that word, Justice Callejo used a phrase that made me do a double take.

There is  "beyond reasonable doubt",  or just "beyond cavil". But "beyond cavil of doubt" seems stilted. To cavil is to quibble which would mean you are not sure; you are in doubt.

Checking the Lawphil website  shows several decisions using the phrase. The earliest seems to be by Justice Barredo in Orellano vs. Alvestir, G.R. No. L-22412 April 29, 1977. 

Is this phrase just another Filipino legalese like the term "price certain" which I discussed in an earlier post (see here)?

I googled the US Supreme decisions in the Chan Robles website for any usage of the phrase:

Beyond cavil and doubt are not used in one phrase together in US jurisprudence. 

Further googling, however, turns out that the phrase is also an Indian legalese:

This is quite perplexing because I thought our SC is more oriented towards US jurisprudence.

Poetic justice: when murder rhymes with detention

Page 582, The Revised Penal Code, Book Two, 2008 Edition, by Reyes:

I like the word irrefragably as used by the ponente, Justice Callejo, but an alarm bell went off when he cited Article 268. My first thought was that it was a typo by Reyes because kidnapping is Art. 267 while Art. 268 is about illegal detention. Checking the decision at  Philippine Report Online revealed that Reyes correctly copied the article.

But working back a few paragraphs shows that in fact the ponente was talking about Article 267, and not Article 268:

Somehow it is a case of poetic license: Article 268 rhymes with Article 248. Does that make Justice Callejo a poet Justice?

Update, March 4, 2013: Justice Regalado in his book Criminal Law Conspectus explained that in fact Article 268 is also about kidnapping but the epigraph made it confusing. So there, I caught myself.

When matter matters too much

Many legal phrases and terms are unique to the Philippines. In my previous post, I discussed why we use price certain instead of the straightforward certain price.

Here's another unique Philippine legal terminology from the Revised Penal Code. Instead of the codal, here's a scanned portion from Justice Regalado's Criminal Law Conspectus, page 463:

A reader will immediately sense something awkward with the phrase material matter. It conjures repeat again for the second twice.

Justice Regalado, on page 467, quotes the way the Supreme Court defines the phrase:

Black's Law dictionary has entries for material and  matter but none for the two words together. Black defines material and matter as:

Material and matter come from the same etymological origin. From the Online Etymology Dictionary we have these entries:

It seems that material matter is simply exaggerated emphasis. Matter, in regard to Article 183, is enough in itself without material describing it.

I could hear now Professor Felipe Belciña, had I brought this up in class, saying: "Wait until you get to the Supreme Court!".  I think I owe one to Prof. Belciña so here goes: "Your compendium in Criminal law II is good." Altho I am a non-theist, I say may you rest in peace.