J. B. L. Reyes - Early Life

Early Life

Reyes was born in Manila to Dr. Ricardo A. Reyes and Marcia C. Luna. By the age of 15, he had earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, at the Ateneo de Manila University. He obtained his law degree from the University of the Philippines in 1922, and passed the bar examinations of that year, placing 6th. He was not allowed admission to the Philippine Bar until the following year, when he reached his 21st birthday. Reyes would later pursue masteral and doctoral studies in law at the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Santo Tomas.

In the 1930s, Reyes was a law professor at the University of the Philippines and at the Far Eastern University. As early as then, he was earning esteem in the legal academe, and even abroad, particularly in the field of civil law. His Dean at the U.P. College of Law, Jorge Bocobo, remarked that Reyes was among of two Filipinos rated as outstanding civilists in Spain.

As a private practitioner, Reyes was among the founders of the Civil Liberties Union in 1937. His association with that group helped foster his lifelong reputation as a civil libertarian and an ardent nationalist. Within weeks after the Japanese invasion in 1941, Reyes helped organize the underground Free Philippines movement. His involvement with the resistance was soon exposed, and he was imprisoned by the Japanese in Fort Santiago in 1944. Unlike some of the other founders of the Free Philippines movement, such as Rafael Roces, Jr. and Antonio Bautista, Reyes was spared execution, though not torture.

After the war, Reyes was appointed to the Court of Appeals. He also helped found in 1947 the Manuel L. Quezon University, and joined its law faculty. When the Civil Code was enacted, Reyes, who had briefly served on the Code Commission before the war, published widely read article outlining his criticisms of several articles. That article has since been cited favorably in a number of Supreme Court decisions.