Born in Davao City, Philippines, Justice Antonio T. Carpio was sworn in as a member of the Supreme Court on October 26, 2001. He earned his law degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law, graduating valedictorian and cum laude in 1975, and placing sixth in the Bar Examinations that same year. He earlier completed a degree in Economics at Ateneo de Manila University in 1970. As a student, he distinguished himself as Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Philippine Law Journal, Editor-in-Chief of The Guidon, and Managing Editor of the Philippine Collegian.
Fresh out of law school, he entered private practice and co-founded the Carpio Villaraza and Cruz Law Firm. From 1983 to 1992, he served as a Professorial Lecturer at the U.P. College of Law, until President Fidel V. Ramos appointed him Chief Presidential Legal Counsel with cabinet rank. In this role, he helped advance key reforms in the telecommunications, shipping, civil aviation, and insurance sectors. He later served on the University of the Philippines Board of Regents from 1993 to 1998.
In 2001, at age 52, he became one of the youngest appointees to the Supreme Court. Shortly after joining the Court, he spearheaded the creation of the Supreme Court E-Library—the first fully searchable, full-text online legal repository in the Philippines and among the earliest in Asia. Over his tenure, he authored 935 decisions, 79 dissents, 30 concurrences, 13 separate opinions, and 4 concurring-and-dissenting opinions, retiring with zero backlog, a rare achievement in the Court’s history.
Justice Carpio’s work has earned numerous honors, including the Presidential Medal of Merit (1998), Outstanding Achievement Award in Law from the Ateneo Alumni Association (1991), Distinguished Alumnus Awards from Ateneo de Davao (2002) and the U.P. Alumni Association (2015, 2017), and Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from Ateneo de Davao University (2009), the University of the Philippines (2020), and Ateneo de Manila University (2021).
A leading voice in the defense of Philippine sovereignty, Justice Carpio has delivered extensive lectures on the West Philippine Sea before institutions around the world. In 2015, the Department of Foreign Affairs sponsored his global lecture tour, where he presented the Philippines’ position in 30 cities across 17 countries. His research culminated in the e-book The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea.
Justice Carpio also serves as Lead Convenor of 1Sambayan, a coalition of pro-democracy leaders and organizations formed to present a united slate of credible candidates for national office in the Philippines. In this role, he advocates for transparent, principled, and merit-based public service.
He served as Chair of the Supreme Court’s Second Division and the Senate Electoral Tribunal, retiring from the Supreme Court on October 26, 2019, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.