Law school in the Philippines
The Far Eastern University – Institute of Law, also known as FEU Law or IL, is the Legal Education Board-accredited law school of the Far Eastern University. It is one of the four earliest institutes that comprised the university in 1934.
FEU Law currently offers a Juris Doctor degree.[1]
Brief history
The Institute of Law (IL) was formally established by Nicanor Reyes Sr. in 1934, the same year that the Far Eastern University was founded, making it one of the older law schools in the country.
In 1970, six out of the top ten placers in the Bar Exams were graduates of IL; no other school did better until 1984.[2]
In 2003, the Institute teamed up with the De La Salle Graduate School of Business to offer the JD-MBA program, the first graduate dual program in law and business administration in the country. The dual degree program is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to excel in two interrelated disciplines and to understand the interrelationships between them. However, in 2014, this partnership was abolished.[1]
In 2011, based on the Bar Examinations passing rate from 2001 to 2010, the Legal Education Board recognized the Far Eastern University Institute of Law as the Ninth Most Outstanding Law School in the country.[3]
Alumni include a Chief Justice and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, several Associate Justices of the Court of Appeals and the Sandiganbayan, a Secretary of Justice, and numerous trial court judges and government prosecutors.[1]
Academic programs
The Institute of Law offers a degree program of Juris Doctor[4] since 2013, shifting from its Bachelor of Laws program.
Facilities
The Institute is housed in the Makati campus of the university; wherein classes are being held at the fourth and sixth floors and a Law library on the 5th floor.
It has bar review rooms and a moot court apart from classrooms.
Students' complaint
In 2000, ten law students of the Institute of Law lodged a complaint against Dean Andres Bautista, Associate Dean Teresita Cruz and two professors before the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for alleged irregularity. The complainants, headed by Artemio Urriza Jr., alleged that they were supposed to graduate in 1999 year but were unjustifiably given failing grades in two to three subjects taught by professors Atty. Ed Vincent Albano and Atty. Japar Dimaampao.
Their letter of complaint said they unduly received failing grades in Civil Law Review 2, Commercial Law Review and Remedial Law subjects.
"We firmly believe that we all passed our subjects and are very qualified to graduate but because of the whimsical and deliberate intentions of a 'triumvirate conspiracy' headed by our dean, Andres Bautista, together with our two professors, we became victims of injustices," they said. But Bautista denied the complainants' allegations as he maintained that the ten deserved to flunk in these subjects.
"We held a faculty deliberation on the second week of March. Professors then expressed reservations among some students, including them (complainants). It was decided that they need to take up these subjects again," he added. Bautista said that faculty deliberation is conducted to enable professors to collectively discuss the status of students.[7]
