The Supreme Court is imposing additional requirements for Filipino law students who will graduate from foreign law schools and who will be applying to take the Philippine bar examinations.
The SC said starting the 2023 bar examinations, Filipino bar applicants who will graduate from foreign law schools must submit certifications “on completion of all courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Laws or its equivalent degree, recognition or accreditation of the law school by the proper authority, and completion of all the fourth year subjects in the Bachelor of Laws academic program in a law school duly recognized by the Philippine Government.”
Aside from these new requirements, the bar takers are required to submit a certification that they completed satisfactorily the program on clinical legal education.
The prescribed courses in law schools are civil law, commercial law, remedial law, criminal law, public and private international law, political law, labor and social legislation, medical jurisprudence, taxation, and legal ethics, and clinical legal education program.
The additional requirements were contained in its July 23, 2019 SC issuance as a revision to a resolution dated June 25, 2019 on the amendment to Rule 38 Section 5 in relation to the revision of Rule 138-A of the Rules of Court.