Supreme Court has duty to protect society, not only to interpret laws

In the end, the Supreme Court has the constitutional duty not only of interpreting and applying the law in accordance with prior doctrines but also of protecting society from the improvidence and wantonness wrought by needless upheavals in such interpretations and applications. Interest rei publicae ut finis sit litium. (The interest of the State demands that there be an end to litigation. - Henson vs. Director of Lands, 37 Phil. 912, 917, March 26, 1918.) [G.R. No. 96700. November 19, 1996]