The Código Civil remained in effect even throughout the American Occupation; by 1940, the Commonwealth Government of President Manuel Luis Quezon formed a Commission tasked with drafting a new Code.
The Commission was initially headed by Chief Justice Ramón Avanceña, but its work was interrupted by the Japanese invasion and the Second World War.
[citation needed] In 1947, President Manuel Roxas of the Third Republic created a new Code Commission, this time headed by the former Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, Jorge Bocobo.
[citation needed] The influence of the Spanish Civil Code is most evident in the books on property, succession and obligations and contracts.
This the Civil Code itself notably recognises in saying that "[j]udicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form a part of the legal system of the Philippines" (Article 8, Civil Code), a recognition of the eminent role now played by precedents in Philippine law.
The Civil Code is divided into four “books”, with each specific book namely:[citation needed] The Chapter 2 of the Civil code was formulated to indicate certain norms that spring from the fountain of good conscience, that will serve as golden threads through society to the end of that law may approach its supreme ideal which is sway and dominance of justice, the primary precept of this portion is derived from Justinian's Institutes: iuris praecepta sunt haec: honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere.
[citation needed] Focuses on property, which classifies and defines the different kinds of appropriable objects, provides for their acquisitions and loss and treats the nature and consequences of real right.
Ownership and other real rights over property are acquired and transmitted by law, by donation, by testate and intestate succession, and in consequence of certain contracts by tradition.