JURISDICTION IN GENERAL

Jurisdiction is the power and authority of a court to hear, try, and decide a case. This is the definition of jurisdiction over the subject matter. Although jurisdiction has several aspects, we usually refer to the subject matter when we discuss the concept of jurisdiction.

In Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation vs. Bureau of Customs, GR No. 209830, June 1, 2015, the Supreme Court explained that:

Jurisdiction is defined as the power and authority of a court to hear, try, and decide a case. In order for the court or an adjudicative body to have the authority to dispose of the case on the merits, it must acquire, among others, jurisdiction over the subject matter. It is axiomatic that jurisdiction over the subject matter is the power to hear and determine the general class to which the proceedings in question belong; it is conferred by law and not by the consent or acquiescence of any or all of the parties or by an erroneous belief of the court that it exists. Thus, when a court has no jurisdiction over the subject matter, the only power it has is to dismiss the action.

Another important point about subject matter jurisdiction is that it is conferred by law. It cannot be conferred by agreement of the parties, by the rules, or by failure to object.

By law, we mean laws made by the legislature. We do not mean the Rules of Court and other rules issued by the Supreme Court.

In our country, the subject matter jurisdiction of courts is defined by BP 129 as amended, known as the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980. This law has been amended over the years by RA 7691 (1994) and RA 11576 (2021) which expanded the jurisdiction of the first-level courts. The specific subject matters under the jurisdiction of our courts are discussed in a separate post.

Other than subject matter, aspects of jurisdiction include person, issues, remedies, and property. A separate post will be devoted to this. For now, let us deal with legal concepts related to jurisdiction.