page_title: University of the Philippines College of Law
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: University of the Philippines College of Law / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque commemorating George A. Malcolm at the U.P. College of Law, Malcolm Hall, U.P. Diliman
context_page_description: The University of the Philippines College of Law is the law school of the University of the Philippines Diliman. Formally established in 1911, it is the third oldest continually-operating law school in the Philippines. Since 1948, it has been located in UP Diliman in Quezon City, the flagship of the University of the Philippines System's eight constituent universities. Until the 1970s, night classes of the college were conducted in UP Manila. Beginning in 2016, classes are also being held at the UP Bonifacio Global City campus in Taguig, which is an extension campus of UP Diliman.
  The College is noted for having produced the largest number of bar topnotchers and maintaining one of the highest bar passing rates among law schools in the Philippines.
context_section_description: It was George Malcolm who had first proposed the establishment of the College of Law within the University of the Philippines system. However, the Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines had initially resisted the proposal. Malcolm thus arranged for the Manila YMCA to offer law courses, which commenced in 1910. Malcolm acted as the Secretary of these law courses.  Within a year, the Board of Regents relented and the University of the Philippines adopted these classes by formally establishing the College of Law on January 12, 1911. The college was formally opened in with fifty (50) Filipino and American students.
  Justice Sherman Moreland of the Philippine Supreme Court, the first acting Dean of the college, eventually declined to take on the position full-time.  He was thus replaced by Malcolm, who served until his appointment as an Associate Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court in 1917.
  In 1964, the University of the Philippines Law Center was established as an agency attached to the college of law, the University of the Philippines Law Center was created to conduct continuing legal education programs, as well as legal research and publications.
  In the 1960s up to the 1980s, the four-year law program consisted of one-hundred-twenty-two (122) units which emphasize the eight bar subjects listed in the Revised Rules of Court: civil law, criminal law, remedial law, legal ethics and legal forms, commercial law, political law, tax law, labor law, public corporation and public officers, and international law. The program also included non-bar subjects such as legal history, legal bibliography, statutory construction, jurisprudence, trial techniques, thesis and legal research, legal medicine, and practice court.
  In addition to Philippine laws and jurisprudence, foreign legal materials from Spain, the United States and other Asian countries were integrated into the curriculum. Students were introduced to basic principles of Roman civil law, English common law, and other international legal systems.
  In 1988, the college launched a core-elective curriculum, permitting law students to enroll up to twenty (20) percent of their total academic load for elective subjects. The effort was made to incorporate specializations in legal education. In 1989, the college followed a revised model law curriculum  adopted by the Philippine Department of Education. The program composed of 51 subjects (124 academic units) which took effect in 1990. It offered additional non-bar subjects such as legal profession, legal ethics, legal counselling, legal research, and legal writing.
  In recognition of the College as "the country’s premier institution in providing quality legal education" and in honor of its "significant contributions to national development since it was founded in 1911," President Benigno Aquino III declared 2011 as the "University of the Philippines College of Law Centennial Year" and authorized, among others, the creation of commemorative stamps by the Philippine Postal Corporation.
caption: George A. Malcolm is commemorated in a plaque that graces the front entrance of the College.
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