Contributor

Edsel Tupaz

Public interest attorney & legal academic

Edsel Tupaz is a public interest attorney and legal academic. He has been engaged in public interest legal practice for over 12 years and served as counsel for government agencies, senior officials, and human rights groups. He taught courses on constitutional law, international law, international development law, and international arbitration in Philippine law schools and at New England Law | Boston. Currently, Edsel is the Overall Research Program Director/Adviser of the Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law at the Ateneo Law School. He briefly worked as a corporate attorney at a leading law firm in the Philippines. He then served as a law clerk and speechwriter to the Honorable Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr., of the Philippine Supreme Court. He also clerked for Justice Ma. Alicia Austra-Martinez. While in government, Edsel taught economics and political philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila University. Edsel obtained his Master of Laws at Harvard Law School where he focused on comparative constitutional law, international law, and legal theory. While at Harvard, he became the Managing Technical Editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo Law School and is recipient of the distinguished St. Thomas More Award. He was editor of the Ateneo Law Journal and president and head coach of the St. Thomas More Debate Society. He graduated with a degree of A.B. Economics (Honors Program) at the Ateneo de Manila University. Edsel's core interests include public policy, international and comparative law, political economy, transitional justice and human rights, economics, and political theory. Apart from law, politics, and the academe, Edsel’s interests lie in 19th and 20th century literature on Christian transcendentalism (with an emphasis on Ralph Waldo Emerson), Ultimate Frisbee, and Belgian beer. He is an avid foodie and travel buff. He is married to Dr. Karen Bautista Rebong-Tupaz, a dentist by profession. They have one infant daughter, Olivia Noelle.