Rules of Court, Volume II: Special Civil Actions and Special Proceedings

The first part is classification, and it is not a formality. Whether a case is an ordinary civil action, a special civil action, or a special proceeding decides the court, the parties, the pleadings and the appeal — so the volume settles that question before anything else.

Part two takes the special civil actions that seek a ruling: interpleader, declaratory relief, and then certiorari, prohibition, mandamus and quo warranto. Part three takes those that affect property and possession — expropriation and just compensation, judicial foreclosure with the equity and the right of redemption, partition, forcible entry and unlawful detainer set carefully against each other, and contempt in both its direct and indirect forms.

Part four is six chapters of nothing but distinctions, because this is where cases and examinations are lost. Certiorari against appeal. Certiorari against prohibition. Certiorari against mandamus. Mandamus against injunction. Annulment of judgment beside the rest. And the constitutional writs — amparo and habeas data — placed where they actually belong in the scheme of remedies.

Parts five and six are the special proceedings. The settlement of estate across seven chapters — venue and jurisdiction, probate, letters testamentary and of administration, the powers and duties of the administrator, claims against the estate, and distribution and partition. Then guardianship, adoption under the administrative regime of R.A. 11642 with its transitional rules, habeas corpus in both its liberty and its custody dimensions, the cancellation and correction of registry entries under Rule 108, and the remaining proceedings — change of name, absentees, and appeals in special proceedings.

The seventh part turns it into practice: separate roadmaps for a special civil action and for a special proceeding, a framework for choosing the proper extraordinary remedy, the traps in each half of the volume, comprehensive problems, and a quick reference of the matrices.

Every chapter is built the same way, in sixteen sections: the governing rule, the same rule in plain language, why it matters, the elements as a checklist, the procedure step by step, the exceptions, a Distinguish box for the concepts commonly confused, the controlling doctrines, a short example, a practice point, the Bar angle, the mistakes students actually make, a one-page Quick Recall, then a law-school problem, a Bar-style problem, and a model answer.