Text of the provision
Art. 9. No judge or court shall decline to render judgment by reason of the silence, obscurity or insufficiency of the laws.
(6)
Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles official-text renderings.
What this article means
A court cannot refuse to decide a case simply because no law squarely covers it, or the law is unclear or incomplete. Where the statute is silent or obscure, the judge must still resolve the dispute — drawing on analogy, custom, general principles of law, and equity (see Article 10). This applies to civil cases; in criminal cases, the principle that there is no crime without a law (nullum crimen sine lege) still controls.
Related provisions
- Article 10 — the presumption of right and justice in doubtful cases.
- Article 8 — decisions filling those gaps become part of the law.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.