Legal Perspectives on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Energy Access in the Philippines

(February 2018) 62-3 Ateneo Law Journal 669

U. of Adelaide Law Research Paper No. 2018-71

Posted: 7 Nov 2018

See all articles by Manuel Solis

Manuel Solis

University of Adelaide - School of Law

Date Written: November 7, 2018

Abstract

While the International Bill of Human Rights has received global assent, it is argued that its implementation remains almost exclusively national. This strongly applies in the sphere of socioeconomic rights and development where the ‘need for an active state has always been especially clear’ with its emergence ‘as both the principal threat to the enjoyment of human rights and the essential institution for their effective implementation and enforcement’. In essence, a human rights-based approach operates with both result and procedure orientations in which the state, including its organs (executive, legislative and judicial) play a central role. Along this line, the guarantee of access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services, as one of the targets under Sustainable Development Goal 7, represents the result aspect of the human rights-based approach; while the legal, policy and regulatory framework under which state action occurs embodies the procedural part. In turn, a human rights-based approach looks into the state’s implementation – through the constitution or national legislation or both - of its commitments under the international human rights regime, particularly socioeconomic rights, in order to examine the challenge and the nature of the change being sought to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services in the domestic context. This entails an examination of institutions, practices and norms as targets for change, including the key role that the judiciary plays, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Having this in mind, the paper embarks with a brief description of the legal, policy and institutional framework in the Philippines that pertain to the implementation of socioeconomic rights relevant to universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services. In doing so, the paper will be able to identify the legal, regulatory and policy opportunities and challenges to attain the aforementioned target in the Philippines. Next, it examines the practical implications of a human rights-based approach to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services in the domestic legal regime. Accordingly, the proposition of couching universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services in the human rights language and the role of the judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court, in realising this are analysed in the Philippines for the first time as a scholarly exercise. The paper concludes that as long as energy poverty and inequality persist, a human rights-based approach to access affordable, reliable and modern energy services remains significant and relevant where the Supreme Court is envisioned to play a vital role in catalysing legal reforms for a better Philippines where the struggles, concerns and basic needs of those who have less – in some instances none – become the clamour and claim of all.

Keywords: Energy access

JEL Classification: K32

Suggested Citation

Solis, Manuel, Legal Perspectives on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Energy Access in the Philippines (November 7, 2018). (February 2018) 62-3 Ateneo Law Journal 669, U. of Adelaide Law Research Paper No. 2018-71, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3280057

Manuel Solis (Contact Author)

University of Adelaide - School of Law ( email )

Ligertwood Building
Adelaide 5005, South Australia SA 5005
Australia
+61 (08) 8313 9167 (Phone)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
306
PlumX Metrics