Requisites of Judicial Review

1. Actual Case or Controversy

 A conflict of legal rights, an assertion of opposite legal claims susceptible of judicial
determination. There must be a legally demandable or enforceable right which is violated by
another, who, in turn has the correlative duty to respect it.
 Issues raised must not be moot and academic.
 Exceptions
i. When the issue is capable of repetition
ii. When there is a grave violation of the Constitution
iii. When there is an exceptional character of the situation and paramount public interest is
involved
iv. To guide the bench and the bar
2. Proper Party (Locus Standi)
 One who has sustained or is in imminent danger of sustaining an injury as a result of the act
complained of (procedural requirement)
i. Taxpayer’s suit: When the issue involves the use of public funds.
ii. Any Citizen, even minors: Issue of transcendental importance with intergenerational
implications
iii. Legislator’s suit: One that involves encroachment to legislative powers
iv. Voter’s suit: Validity of an election
3. Question must be raised at the earliest possible opportunity
 Constitutional question must be alleged in the complaint or petition and not on appeal.
 Exception: When the question is jurisdictional, in which case it may be raised at any stage of the
proceeding even on appeal.
4. Decision must be determinative of the case itself (Lis Mota Doctrine)
 If a case can be decided without delving on the constitutional issues, an action assailing
constitutionality is dismissible.

Partial Unconstitutionality

Two Conditions:
1. Legislature is willing to retain the valid portions.
2. Valid portions can stand independently as a separate statute.

Effects of Declaration of Unconstitutionality

1. Orthodox view: An unconstitutional act is not a law, it confers no right, it imposes no duties, it affords
no protection, it creates no office, it is, in legal contemplation, inoperative, as if it had not been passed at
all.
2. Modern View: Courts simply refuse to recognize the law and determine the rights of the parties as if the
statute had no existence. Certain effects of the statute prior to declaration of unconstitutionality may be
given effect. (Operative fact doctrine)