Every September, the Supreme Court’s Civil Law paper does two things at once: it tests the Civil Code, and it quietly tests whether a candidate kept up with a Code that keeps changing underneath them. This page is built the same way as our other reference pages — from the Supreme Court’s own Bar Bulletins and the released questionnaires themselves, not from a commercial reviewer’s summary of them. Where we could not verify a number from a primary source, we say so instead of guessing.
It covers what the paper actually asks about (not just what the syllabus lists), the doctrines that keep reappearing across recent sittings, the syllabus broken down part by part with links to our own guides, the statutes examiners have visibly reached for, and a short FAQ.
Jump to a section
- Civil Law at a glance
- What actually gets asked
- The papers we reviewed
- Past questionnaires (official copies)
- Doctrines that keep coming back
- The syllabus, part by part
- Statutes the examiners have actually used
- Why a printed reviewer falls behind
- FAQ
- Sources and legal citations
Civil Law at a Glance
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Subject weight | 20% of the general weighted average — the second-largest of the six bar subjects, behind only Remedial Law, Legal and Judicial Ethics (25%). |
| 2026 paper’s official title | “Civil Law and Land Titles and Deeds.” The Office of the Bar Chairperson added “and Land Titles and Deeds” to the subject title for 2026; the 20% weight did not change. |
| Format | 20 problem-type essay questions calling for a short “Explain” or “Reason(s)” answer. No multiple choice — confirmed on the face of both the 2025 and 2026 released questionnaires. |
| Time allowed | One session, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon (4 hours), on a single day within the compressed three-day digital exam week. |
| Most recent sitting | September 9, 2026 (Civil Law and Land Titles and Deeds). Results are not yet released as of this writing. |
| Coverage cut-off | Laws, rules, issuances and jurisprudence as of June 30, 2025 for the 2026 exam. A provision repealed or superseded on or before that date is excluded from coverage. |
| Passing mark | 75% general weighted average across all six subjects, per the passing standard the Supreme Court has applied since 1982. |
| Most recent complete results | 2025 Bar Examinations (Sept. 10, 2025 sitting): 11,420 examinees completed all three exam days, 5,594 passed — a 48.98% passing rate, up from 3,962 passers the year before. Topnotcher: Jhenroniel Rhey Timola Sanchez of the University of the Philippines, 92.70%. |
Figures above are cited to the Supreme Court’s own bulletins, questionnaires and press releases — see Sources and Legal Citations. We did not find an official source for the exact wording of the 2026 coverage-cutoff rule beyond “as of June 30, 2025, with repealed or superseded material automatically excluded,” so we have not tried to simplify it further.
What Actually Gets Asked
We read six full Civil Law questionnaires released by the Supreme Court and reproduced in the LawPhil archive — 2018, 2019, 2022 (Civil Law I and Civil Law II, the year the exam briefly split in two), 2025 and 2026 — 111 individual questions in total. These seven clusters accounted for the clear majority of them. This is our own classification, not the Supreme Court’s, and it covers six sittings across eight years, not every year the exam has been given.
Marriage validity, nullity and foreign divorce
The single most consistent cluster — at least one question in every questionnaire we reviewed, sometimes three. Psychological incapacity under Article 36 of the Family Code, the recognition of a foreign divorce under Article 26, and the validity of a marriage celebrated abroad recur constantly. Marriage, nullity and annulment are Family Code territory, covered in depth on FamilyCode.PH, our sister site — the syllabus section below links there directly.
Succession, wills and legitime
Also present in every paper we reviewed: computing legitime and intestate shares, testamentary formalities, disinheritance, preterition, and the mechanics of extrajudicial settlement. Read our guide on compulsory heirs and legitime →
Property, possession and easements
Co-ownership, easements, accession (including the 2026 paper’s river-island accretion problem), and builder/planter-in-good-faith questions appear year after year. Read our guide on a neighbor building on your land →
Land titles, forged deeds and double sale
The Torrens system, the innocent-purchaser-for-value rule, forged deeds, and double sale under Article 1544 come up repeatedly — the 2026 paper’s Assurance Fund question is a good example. Read our guide on double sale under Article 1544 →
Obligations: extinguishment, novation and solidary liability
Fortuitous events, novation, joint versus solidary obligations, and the modes of extinguishing an obligation are a near-permanent fixture — the 2025 paper alone had four separate questions built around them. Read our guide on novation →
Sale, lease and the Recto and Maceda Laws
Contract of sale versus contract to sell, earnest money, installment sales of both personal and real property, and the Statute of Frauds appear constantly, with the 2026 paper devoting four of its twenty questions to variations on sale and lease alone. Read our guide on the Recto Law →
Torts, quasi-delicts and vicarious liability
Negligence, proximate cause, and Article 2180 vicarious liability (parents, employers, school heads) show up in most years we reviewed, often paired with a damages question. Explore our Damages and Civil Liability hub →
The Papers We Reviewed
This is not a full 2006–2026 archive. It is every Civil Law questionnaire we were able to read in full for this page — a mix of years, not a continuous run. We are not treating this as a scientific sample; it is simply what we could verify.
| Sitting | Questions | Format | Notable topics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 (Nov. 11, 2018) | 19 | Essay | Marriage of stepsiblings, dependent relative revocation, machinery as real property, Assurance Fund |
| 2019 | 20 | Essay | Presumptive death, foreign divorce recognition, fideicommissary substitution, sale vs. contract to sell |
| 2022 Civil Law I (Nov. 16, 2022) | 15 | Essay | Psychological incapacity mid-pandemic, double sale, usurious interest, unborn-child succession |
| 2022 Civil Law II (Nov. 16, 2022) | 12 | Essay | Builder in good faith, easement of right of way, forged title transfer, reconstitution of a burned title |
| 2025 (Sept. 10, 2025) | 20 | Essay | Legal redemption among co-owners, psychological incapacity, GSIS unconscionable interest, the 2022 SC Rule on International Child Abduction |
| 2026 (Sept. 9, 2026) | 20 | Essay | Foreign divorce under Article 26 (twice), accretion by river bifurcation, Assurance Fund, chattel-mortgage deficiency |
The exam itself changed shape partway through this span: the eight bar subjects were consolidated into six and the format moved from four Sundays to a compressed, localized, digital three-day week starting with the 2023 exam. Civil Law’s essay-only format did not change across that reform.
Past Questionnaires (Official Copies)
Read the actual released questions yourself rather than someone else’s summary of them. These link straight to the Supreme Court’s own PDF where we could find one, or to LawPhil’s official Bar Question archive, which reproduces the Court’s text.
- 2026 — Civil Law and Land Titles and Deeds (Sept. 9, 2026): Official questionnaire, sc.judiciary.gov.ph (PDF)
- 2025 — Civil Law (Sept. 10, 2025): Official questionnaire, sc.judiciary.gov.ph (PDF)
- 2022 — Civil Law I (Nov. 16, 2022): LawPhil Bar Question archive
- 2022 — Civil Law II (Nov. 16, 2022): LawPhil Bar Question archive
- 2018 — Civil Law (Nov. 11, 2018): LawPhil Bar Question archive
- 2019 — Civil Law: referenced in this page from a secondary review source; we were not able to locate the Supreme Court’s own copy during this pass, so no link is given here. Treat our notes on the 2019 paper accordingly.
- Earlier years (2006–2017): the full run is indexed at LawPhil’s Archive of Bar Questions, with suggested answers for many years compiled separately by the UST Faculty of Civil Law.
2026 results have not been released as of this writing. When the Supreme Court publishes them, we will update the Civil Law at a Glance table above rather than leave the 2025 figures looking current.
Doctrines That Keep Coming Back
Pulled from the six questionnaires above, plus the syllabus’s own emphasis. Where we found a specific controlling case, we verified it directly against LawPhil or the Supreme Court E-Library rather than a case digest.
- Psychological incapacity as a ground for nullity — tested in 2022 and 2025 in our sample, and redefined by Tan-Andal v. Andal, G.R. No. 196359 (May 11, 2021): expert psychiatric testimony is no longer required, and the spouse alleging it must prove “clear acts of dysfunctionality” by clear and convincing evidence, not merely a diagnosis.
- Recognition of a foreign divorce under Article 26 — tested in 2019, and twice in the 2026 paper alone (a straightforward recognition petition, and a bigamy defense turning on which spouse’s nationality controls).
- Double sale under Article 1544 — the priority rules among a first registrant in good faith, a first possessor in good faith, and the oldest title, tested in 2022. Full guide →
- Builder, planter or sower in good faith under Articles 448 and 546 — tested in 2018, 2022 and 2026, most recently as a lessee’s improvements on land rather than an owner’s. Full guide →
- Legitime and compulsory succession — computing shares after a repudiation or a predeceased heir, tested in nearly every paper we reviewed. Full guide →
- Novation, express and implied — distinguishing a true novation from a mere accommodation or additional debtor, tested in 2019 and 2025. Full guide →
- Joint versus solidary obligations — whether a creditor can collect the whole debt from just one co-debtor, tested in 2025 and a recurring named topic in the syllabus. Full guide →
- The Statute of Frauds and notarization — whether an unnotarized or oral contract is void, unenforceable, or merely disadvantageous, tested in 2019, 2025 and 2026. Full guide →
- Article 2180 vicarious liability — when a parent, employer, school or vehicle owner answers for another’s negligence, tested in 2018, 2022 and 2025. Explore our Damages hub →
- Innocent purchaser for value and the Assurance Fund — the remedy of a buyer who relied on a clean title that turned out to rest on a forged deed, tested in 2019, 2022 and 2026.
The Civil Law Syllabus, Part by Part
The Office of the Bar Chairperson issues a fresh syllabus every year. What follows is the structure of the 2026 syllabus — twelve parts, published under the subject’s new title, “Civil Law and Land Titles and Deeds.” Some parts are covered in depth on this site; a few genuinely belong to a sister site, and we link there instead of duplicating.
I. Effect and Application of Laws
Arts. 1–18 of the Civil Code: when laws take effect, retroactivity, waiver, repeal, judicial decisions as part of the legal system, and conflict-of-laws principles (lex nationalii, lex rei sitae, lex loci celebrationis, renvoi, and the rest). See our Preliminary Title guide →
II. Persons
Juridical capacity and capacity to act, for both natural and juridical persons, including corporations and cooperatives, and the restrictions minority places on capacity. Explore the Persons and Civil Status hub →
III. Family Relations
Marriage, void and voidable marriages, legal separation, property relations between spouses, paternity and filiation, adoption, support, the family home, and parental authority under the Family Code. This is the single most consistently tested part of the paper — and it is Family Code territory. We explain the civil-law rules that intersect with it (co-ownership, legitime, damages) on this site, but the marriage, annulment, filiation, adoption and support guides themselves live on FamilyCode.PH, our sister site, written and maintained by the same team.
IV. Civil Register
Required civil-registry entries and the administrative correction of entries under Rule 108 of the Rules of Court and RA 9048, as amended by RA 10172 and RA 11909. Read our guide on change of name vs. correction of entry →
V. Property, Ownership, and Its Modifications
Classification of property, ownership and its limits, the actions to recover ownership and possession (accion reivindicatoria, accion publiciana, accion interdictal, quieting of title), accession, co-ownership, possession, usufruct, and easements. Explore the Property and Ownership hub →
VI. Land Titles and Deeds
The Torrens system under PD 1529, the Regalian doctrine, original and subsequent registration, the innocent-purchaser-for-value rule, adverse claims and lis pendens, the Assurance Fund, and reconstitution of title under RA 26. We cover this within the Property and Ownership hub rather than as a separate section. Read our guide on land title vs. tax declaration →
VII. Succession
Testamentary and intestate succession, the elements and effects of succession, and the common provisions on acceptance and distribution of the estate. Explore the Succession and Inheritance hub →
VIII. Obligations and Contracts
General provisions on obligations, their sources and classification, the modes of extinguishment, and the general theory of contracts — requisites, form, interpretation, and the four defective-contract categories (rescissible, voidable, unenforceable, void). Explore the Obligations and Contracts hub →
IX. Special Contracts
Sale (including installment sales under the Recto and Maceda Laws), lease, agency, and credit transactions — loan, deposit, guaranty and suretyship, real estate mortgage, and security interests in personal property under the Personal Property Security Act. Read our guide on sale vs. contract to sell → · Explore the Lease and Rental Disputes hub →
X. Quasi-Contracts
Negotiorum gestio and solutio indebiti — obligations that arise without an agreement, from managing another’s affairs or receiving something by mistake. We cover both within the Damages and Civil Liability hub →
XI. Torts and Quasi-Delicts
Abuse of rights, the elements of a quasi-delict, vicarious liability, proximate cause, the classification of torts, recognized defenses, nuisance, and medical negligence. Read our guide on proving negligence in a civil case →
XII. Damages
Actual, moral, nominal, temperate, liquidated and exemplary damages, and damages in case of death. Read our guide on the types of damages → · Explore the Damages and Civil Liability hub →
Two syllabus items do not map cleanly onto any single part above but come up constantly in practice: prescription of civil actions and the choice of forum (small claims, barangay conciliation before filing, ordinary civil action). We cover those within the Barangay, Courts and Civil Remedies hub →
Statutes the Examiners Have Actually Used
Two different things get conflated in most reviewers: a statute the syllabus names, and a statute a released question actually turned on. Both matter, but they are not the same signal.
Confirmed in the questions we read
- Family Code, Article 26 (validity of a marriage celebrated abroad; recognition of a foreign divorce) — the operative provision in one 2019 question and two of the twenty 2026 questions.
- Civil Code, Article 1544 (double sale) and Presidential Decree No. 1529 (Property Registration Decree, including the Assurance Fund) — the 2022 and 2026 papers each built a full question around a forged-deed-and-innocent-purchaser fact pattern.
- Civil Code, Article 1484 (the Recto Law on installment sales of personal property secured by chattel mortgage) — the mechanism behind the 2026 paper’s car-financing deficiency question.
- Statute of Frauds, Civil Code Article 1403(2), and the notarization requirement of Article 1358 — tested through an oral lease in 2026, and an unnotarized deed of sale in 2025.
- The 2022 Supreme Court Rule on International Child Abduction Cases, implementing the 1980 Hague Convention — an unusually recent administrative issuance, tested directly in the 2025 paper’s final question.
- Usury-ceiling jurisprudence on unconscionable interest — applied twice, to a private moneylending dispute in 2022 and to GSIS-imposed loan interest and penalties in 2025. Read our guide on excessive or unconscionable interest →
Named in the current syllabus but not seen in our six-paper sample
Squarely within the 2026 coverage, and each recent enough that an older reviewer may have missed it — not a prediction that any of these will appear:
- RA 11642 (2022) — the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act, which moved domestic adoption out of the courts and into the National Authority for Child Care.
- RA 11767 (2022) — the Foundling Recognition and Protection Act.
- RA 11596 (2021) — raised the minimum marriageable age to 18 and criminalized child marriage.
- RA 11573 (2021) — simplified the requirements for judicial confirmation of imperfect land titles.
- RA 11057 (2018) — the Personal Property Security Act, which created a single registered-security-interest system for movable collateral. Read our guide →
Why a Printed Reviewer Falls Behind
Every one of the five statutes in the list above is newer than most commercially printed Civil Law reviewers still in circulation, and RA 11642 rewired how domestic adoption is even processed — a printed book from 2020 would still describe a court proceeding that no longer exists. The 2022 SC Rule on International Child Abduction Cases is a more specific problem: it is exactly the kind of Supreme Court administrative issuance that a syllabus references in passing and that most reviewers never covered at all, yet it was the entire subject of a 2025 question. The syllabus itself changes shape yearly — 2026 is the first year “Land Titles and Deeds” was added to the paper’s title — so a reviewer written for an earlier year’s syllabus can be structurally out of date even where the underlying law has not moved. Before relying on any secondary material, check its date against the current Bar Bulletin’s coverage cut-off, and verify a provision against the Civil Code text or the Official Gazette rather than a reviewer’s paraphrase of it.
FAQ
How much of my grade is Civil Law worth?
20% of the general weighted average. Only Remedial Law, Legal and Judicial Ethics with Practical Exercises (25%) is worth more; Commercial and Taxation Laws is tied with Civil Law at 20%.
Is Civil Law multiple choice or essay?
All essay. Every Civil Law questionnaire we reviewed, from 2018 through 2026, is a set of problem-type questions calling for a short “Explain” or “Reason(s)” answer — no multiple choice. This has not changed since the bar’s 2023 format reform.
Why does the 2026 paper say “Civil Law and Land Titles and Deeds” instead of just “Civil Law”?
That is a change in the paper’s title, made by the 2026 Office of the Bar Chairperson, not a change in weight or in what the syllabus already covered — land titles and deeds have been part of the Civil Law syllabus’s Property book for years. Treat it as the Court making the paper’s existing scope explicit rather than adding a new subject.
Does the coverage cut-off date matter?
Yes. Each year’s Bar Bulletin fixes a cut-off — June 30, 2025 for the 2026 exam, June 30, 2024 for the 2025 exam — and a law, rule or issuance repealed or superseded on or before that date is excluded from coverage. A law passed after the cut-off is also outside that year’s coverage. Check the current Bar Bulletin rather than relying on a syllabus from an earlier year.
Does CivilLaw.PH cover marriage, annulment and family law for the bar?
Not directly, and this is worth knowing before you plan your review around this site alone. Family Relations is officially Part III of the Civil Law syllabus, and it is one of the most consistently tested parts of the paper — but marriage, nullity, annulment, legal separation, property relations between spouses, adoption, custody and support are covered in depth on FamilyCode.PH, our sister site under the same editorial team. Use both sites together for full syllabus coverage.
Is Persons and Family Relations examined separately from the rest of Civil Law?
No. Under the current six-subject format, Persons and Family Relations is examined as part of the single Civil Law paper, alongside Property, Succession, Obligations and Contracts, and the rest of the syllabus — not as a separate subject or a separate exam day.
Where can I get the official past questionnaires myself?
The Supreme Court publishes each year’s bulletins and, after the exam, the released questionnaires, at sc.judiciary.gov.ph. LawPhil maintains a longer historical archive, indexed at its Archive of Bar Questions. We link directly to both in the Past Questionnaires section above.
How is legitime actually computed?
It depends on which compulsory heirs survive and in what combination — a surviving spouse alone divides the estate differently than a surviving spouse with legitimate children, or with illegitimate children, or with none. We walk through the shares and the arithmetic in our compulsory heirs and legitime guide, which is the more consistently tested half of the Succession part of the syllabus.
Do prescription, small claims and barangay conciliation come up in the Civil Law paper?
Prescription of civil actions is genuinely part of the Civil Law syllabus (Book III of the Civil Code). Barangay conciliation and small claims procedure sit closer to Remedial Law but come up in Civil Law fact patterns whenever a question turns on whether a claim can still be filed or where it belongs. We cover both within our Barangay, Courts and Civil Remedies hub.
Sources and Legal Citations
- Office of the 2026 Bar Chairperson, Bar Bulletin No. 1, Series of 2026: Conduct of the 2026 Bar Examinations — Modality, Schedule, Coverage, and Syllabi, Oct. 16, 2025, Supreme Court of the Philippines. Supports: subject weight, coverage cut-off, exam format and schedule, full Civil Law and Land Titles and Deeds syllabus.
- Supreme Court of the Philippines, 2026 Bar Examinations — Civil Law and Land Titles and Deeds (released questionnaire), Sept. 9, 2026, sc.judiciary.gov.ph. Supports: the 2026 topic analysis on this page.
- Supreme Court of the Philippines, 2025 Bar Examinations — Civil Law (released questionnaire), Sept. 10, 2025, sc.judiciary.gov.ph. Supports: the 2025 topic analysis on this page.
- Supreme Court of the Philippines, 5,594 Pass 2025 Bar Exams; UP Graduate Ranks First, press release, Jan. 8, 2026, sc.judiciary.gov.ph. Supports: 2025 examinee count, passing rate, topnotcher figures.
- LawPhil Project, Archive of Bar Questions — 2018 Civil Law, 2022 Civil Law I, and 2022 Civil Law II. Supports: the 2018 and 2022 topic analysis on this page.
- Tan-Andal v. Andal, G.R. No. 196359, May 11, 2021, Supreme Court of the Philippines En Banc, lawphil.net. Supports: the current evidentiary standard for psychological incapacity under Family Code Article 36.
- Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, and its amendatory laws, lawphil.net. Supports: article numbers and provisions referenced throughout this page.
- Supreme Court of the Philippines, Bar Bulletin No. 1 on Modality, Schedule, Coverage, and Syllabi, Sept. 16, 2024 (2025 Bar Examinations). Supports: the 2025 coverage cut-off date.
Bar Reviewers for the Network’s Other Subjects
CivilLaw.ph is part of a small network of free, source-based Philippine bar reviewers, built the same way as this page — classified from the Supreme Court’s own released questionnaires and syllabi, not a commercial reviewer’s summary.
Civil Law · Family Relations
Family Law Bar Exam Reviewer
Marriage validity and nullity, psychological incapacity, foreign divorce, spousal property relations, custody, support and adoption — the Family Relations part of this syllabus, covered on our sister site.
Read on FamilyCode.ph →Labor Law · 10%
Labor Law Bar Reviewer
Termination, labor relations, labor standards, employment status and social legislation, ranked by how often each has appeared in released questionnaires.
Read on LaborCode.ph →Commercial · Criminal · Remedial
Cyber Law Bar Exam Reviewer
Not a standalone subject — the Cybercrime Prevention Act, Data Privacy Act and Rules on Electronic Evidence, tested across three subjects worth 55% combined.
Read on Cybercode.ph →Last materially reviewed: September 18, 2026, against the sources listed above.
This page is for general educational and legal-information purposes and is not legal advice. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a publication of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, the Office of the Bar Chairperson, or any bar review center. Bar exam coverage, format and results change from year to year; always confirm current details against the Supreme Court’s own Bar Bulletin for the year you are taking the exam. See our Editorial Policy and Research Methodology for how we verify and update pages like this one, or use our About page to reach us with a correction.