Theory and Practice of International Tax Law

The course provides with the History, Philosophy, Politics and Economics (HPPE) aspects of international taxation, including: 1) a comprehensive overview of the fundamental principles of taxation written by Adam Smith in "The Wealth of Nations" back to 1776; 2) a comprehensive overview of the fundamental principles of international taxation contained in the "Report on Double Taxation" written for the League of Nations by Proff. Bruins, Einaudi, Seligman and Stamp, back to 1923, as well as in the following recommendations of other international Organizations (i.e. the Model Tax Convention and its Commentary, the BEPS project and the CRS of the OECD); 3) a comprehensive overview of the fundamental principles of international tax law embodied in customary law as well as in supranational law (i.e. European tax law). The course also aims to get into practice describing the most common tax regimes of multinational enterprises as well as the International tax avoidance, evasion and fraud techniques in order to demonstrate that countries are no longer free to adopt international tax rules they please but, rather, are obliged to operate in the context of circulating tax models, which change in the same ways international law changes over time. It is still possible to imagine unilateral actions, and sometimes there are indeed, but they more often generate unpredictable counteractions in the matrix of globalization. This is the reason why international and supranational Organizations (i.e. OECD and EU) are becoming conscious to propose coordinated actions that respect the basic principles of international tax law.

The course aims to support students with the best preparation in order to decide whether to continue the scientific research in the field of international taxation within universities, research centers or international organizations as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN), the World Bank (WB), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund, or supranational organizations like the European Union. Those students who are more interested into the practice of business and/or law, may have the opportunity to continue their career in international taxation assisting corporations and individuals within a law firm or by working within an international tax department of a multinational enterprise