A citation has one job: let the reader reach the thing you are relying on. In a bar answer it does a second job as well — it tells the examiner that the rule you just stated is not something you invented at speed.
Both jobs fail if the citation is wrong. So the first rule is not about format at all: do not cite what you have not checked.
Cases
The identifying pair in Philippine practice is the docket number and the date:
People v. Dela Cruz, G.R. No. 123456, 1 June 2020.
Conventions worth keeping:
- Italicise the case name in text. Do not set it in capitals, even where the parties' names are in capitals in the caption.
- "v." not "vs." The standard abbreviation in Philippine reports is a single "v."
- Give the date, not just the year. It matters: the same case can have a decision and later a resolution on the same docket, and it is the decision you are relying on.
- Shorten the name to the parties that identify the case — "People v. Dela Cruz", not the full caption with all the roles.
- The reporter volume and page are optional in an answer. "G.R. No." and the date are what find the text; a volume and page you half-remember is a liability.
If you remember the doctrine but not the docket number, say so: "under the rule in the double-sale cases" is honest and scores; a fabricated G.R. number is worse than no authority, because it tells the examiner something true about your method.
Statutes and codes
Name the instrument, then the provision:
- Republic Acts: Republic Act No. 386, or in running text, RA No. 386. Then the article or section: Civil Code, art. 1174.
- The Civil Code and the Revised Penal Code are cited as codes, by article: Civil Code, art. 1174; Revised Penal Code, art. 4.
- Batas Pambansa and Presidential Decrees: Batas Pambansa Blg. 22; Presidential Decree No. 1529.
- Amendments: cite the amending law where the point turns on it — a section as amended is not the section as originally enacted, and an answer that cites the original text after an amendment is answering an older question.
- The Constitution: 1987 Const., art. VIII, sec. 1.
- The Rules of Court: Rule 45, sec. 1; or Rules of Court, Rule 45, sec. 1. Cite the Rule first, the section second — examiners read in that order because that is how the Rules are organised.
- Administrative issuances: name the issuing body, the number and the year — an administrative circular of the Supreme Court, a revenue regulation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, a circular of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Where the issuance is amended, cite the amendment.
- Local ordinances and treaties: name them in full on first use, then shorten. For treaties, the date of entry into force is the equivalent of the decision date.
The three errors that cost marks
The invented citation. A docket number that belongs to no case, or to a different one. Examiners check the ones that look load-bearing, and an invented authority reads as a candidate who does not verify.
The case that does not say it. Citing a well-known case for a proposition it does not hold — the most common version of this is citing a case for the general rule when the case was actually about the exception. If you have not read the ruling, do not attribute a rule to it.
The superseded provision. Quoting a section as it read before an amendment, or relying on a decision interpreting text that has since changed. This is why the date matters in both citations: the decision's date and the law's current text.
How to verify
Verification is fast and free.
- Take the docket number and date and look the case up in the Supreme Court E-Library. That is the Court's own repository and the copy that controls.
- Read the dispositive and the ruling paragraph — not the whole decision. You are checking that the rule you want to state is the rule the Court applied.
- Check for a subsequent resolution on the same docket, and for a later case that has modified the doctrine. The E-Library entry will show the resolution if there is one.
- Check the provision's current text where a statute is the authority — the Official Gazette publishes the text of new laws as they are promulgated.
Two minutes per citation. In a review year, that is the cheapest accuracy available to you.
Citing in an answer: how much is enough
A twelve-minute answer does not need a footnote apparatus. It needs one authority per rule, stated cleanly:
The period fixed is presumed for the benefit of both parties (Civil Code, art. 1196), so neither may demand its change unilaterally.
That is enough. What you do not need:
- A string of three cases for the same proposition.
- Parenthetical explanations of each case.
- The reasoning of the cases, unless the question is about the reasoning.
What you must not do is drop the authority and state the rule as your own opinion. In a doctrinal answer, the authority is the rule.
Where the library helps
Our law library carries the full text of Philippine decisions and statutes with a docket-number and citation index, so a citation you are unsure of can be checked in seconds — and the digests give you the rule and its elements in a paragraph, which is often exactly what an answer needs. What neither can do is decide for you whether the doctrine is still good; that check is yours, and it takes the two minutes described above.
The habit to build this year is simple and non-negotiable: read what you cite. It is also, incidentally, the habit that makes a citation an asset rather than a risk.