About the author

Florin T. Hilbay holds a degree in economics from the University of Santo Tomas, and in law from the University of the Philippines. He ranked 1st in the 1999 Bar examinations, and obtained his master’s at Yale Law School. He was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar and has held fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and at the Asian Law Institute at the National University of Singapore. He taught constitutional law and philosophy of law in the University of the Philippines and is the author of Unplugging the Constitution (2009). At 40, he was appointed Solicitor General of the Philippines. As Solgen, he represented the country in the arbitration over the West Philippine Sea in Philippines vs. China. He now serves as Dean of the College of Law of Silliman University, where he teaches a course on Money and State.

He is a homesteader, practicing regenerative agriculture. To this day, his love for the guitar remains unrequited.