Encyclopedia

Bureau

Bureau refers to any principal subdivision or unit of any department. (Sec. 2(8), Administrative Code of 1987)

Regulatory agency

Regulatory agency refers to any agency expressly vested with jurisdiction to regulate, administer or adjudicate matters affecting substantial rights and interests of private persons, the principal powers of which are exercised by a collective body, such as a commission, board or council. (Sec. 2(11), Administrative Code of 1987)

ADR Provider

ADR Provider means institutions or persons accredited as mediator, conciliator, arbitrator, neutral evaluator, or any person exercising similar functions in any Alternative Dispute Resolution system. This is without prejudice to the rights of the parties to choose nonaccredited individuals to act as mediator, conciliator, arbitrator, or neutral evaluator of their dispute. (Sec. 3(b), Alternative Dispute Resolution Act of 2004)

Backward integration

Backward integration refers to the process by which the development or increased production of a product or products in a certain stage in the industry results into the development of increased production of products in preceding stages. (Section 3, Iron and Steel Industry Act)

Academic failure

An academic subject in which the student has failed. (Moreno’s Law Dictionary, 2000 Ed., p. 4).

Absolute community of property

The absolute community of property between spouses shall commence at the precise moment that the marriage is celebrated and shall consist of all the property owned by the spouses at the time of the celebration of the marriage or acquired thereafter. (Arts. 88 and 91, Family Code)

natural biotic area

A natural biotic area is an area set aside to allow the way of life of societies living in harmony with the environment to adopt to modern technology at their pace. (Sec. 4, National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992)

Aberratio ictus

In criminal law, mistake in the blow, characterized by aiming at one but hitting the other due to imprecision in the blow. (People v. Sabalones, GR No. 123485, Aug. 31, 1998)

See error in personae.

Buffer zone

A buffer zone is an identified area outside the boundaries of and immediately adjacent to designated protected areas that need special development control in order to avoid or minimize harm to the protected area. (Sec. 4, National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992)

Section 8 of the NIPAS Act requires that for each protected area, there shall be established peripheral buffer zones which necessary, in the same manner as Congress establishes the protected area, to protect the same from activities that will directly and indirectly harm it. Such buffer zones shall be included in the individual protected area management plan that shall be prepared for each protected area. That DENR shall exercise its authority over protected areas as provided in this Act on such area designated as buffer zones.

Pro se practice

Pro se practice is the appearance in court by a non-lawyer for himself without the assistance of a member of the bar. It is allowed, but it is not advisable to do so. Court proceedings are full of technical pitfalls that may entrap a person unschooled in substantive and procedural law.