The Past and Future of Global Tax Justice

Organized by

Madeline Woker
Early-Career Fellow 2023–2024

Alice Pirlot
Graduate Institute, Geneva, CH

Informations

Venue:
Main building, University of Zurich
Rämistrasse 71
8006 Zurich

Monday, May 27, 2024: Room KOL-H-317
Tuesday, May 28, 2024: Room KOL-G-217

The conference is open to the public. Please register using this form.

On October 8, 2021, 136 members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) released what has been hailed as a “historic” statement “on a Two-Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalisation of the Economy.” Yet dissenting voices soon emerged, suggesting that the agreement would not in fact amount to a significant step towards true global tax justice. Is the OECD, a club of rich countries, the best forum for the making of international tax rules? Exactly how “inclusive” is this “inclusive framework”? Are Pillar I and Pillar II, which respectively seek to better allocate tax revenue to so-called “market countries” and implement a global minimum corporate tax of 15%, adapted to the needs of developing countries? How effective are these measures to combat global tax avoidance?  

Recent academic research has already started to raise serious doubts, not only regarding the prospects for effective implementation but also the detrimental effects that the reform would have on the tax sovereignty and revenue-raising capacity of developing countries. Moreover, proposals for alternative platforms have emerged, notably at the United Nations whose Secretary-General has called for a forum which addresses a “broader discontent rooted in the long-standing conviction held by many countries and stakeholders that the existing tax treaty rules do not reserve sufficient taxing rights to countries hosting multinational enterprises and constituting markets for their products” (A/78/235, para. 5). There is now a growing consensus around the necessity to strengthen the role of the UN in international tax cooperation. This would effectively side line the OECD, hopefully delivering on the promise to set up a truly “inclusive and effective” system of international tax cooperation.

This interdisciplinary conference will take stock of these recent developments and engage in a larger discussion about the history and practices of global tax justice. Our aim is to discuss global tax justice from the perspective of different disciplines, primarily history and law. Ultimately, we hope that the conference will help achieve a better understanding of what global tax justice means from a procedural and substantive viewpoint.

Interdisciplinary conferences on taxation are still too rare. This conference will work towards rectifying the lack of dialogue between scholars of taxation.

Program
May 27, 2024

Program
May 28, 2024

Panel
Abstracts

Panel 1
Paths Not Taken and Power in Global Tax Governance

The first panel will seek to understand the factors that can lead to global tax (in)justices by reflecting on the history of global tax governance. What can we learn from the past on global tax (in)justice?  Can we identify the intellectual genealogy of decisions that were taken at the time? How did these decisions influence the architecture of the global tax order? What were the paths not taken and why? What is the legacy of empire and colonialism on the way taxing rights are distributed today and in how taxes are levied within countries themselves? Is there a specific historical legacy that we should reckon with today in order to move forward? We are interested in historically-grounded tools to think about global tax reform. Can the past offer us some cues

Panel 2
The Role of Experts in International Tax Governance

This second panel will address the role of experts in international tax governance as one of the factors that might lead to global tax injustices. Who are the main actors who have influenced the way international tax law has been conceived and perceived? What is the impact of these actors on procedural and substantive issues of global tax justice? What can we learn from the past when it comes to the role of experts in international tax law?

Panel 3
Tax and Global Justice

This third panel will discuss the foundations of global justice in the context of tax. Why is it that tax is relevant for global justice? Why is it that international tax law does not include principles of fairness as it is the case of other areas of international law? How did the actors who laid the foundations of international tax law contribute to a system which might not be just?

Panel 4
Towards Global Tax Justice

This fourth panel will critically discuss avenues to promote global tax justice, primarily from a substantive viewpoint. We will also reflect on the potential obstacles to global tax justice in a decentralised international tax regime: Is it at all possible and desirable to promote global tax justice in a world where some governments are corrupt? What are possible pathways to move towards the direction of a more just world by using international tax policy?

Panel 5
Collective Brainstorming Session

We will use this session to collectively brainstorm about underexplored areas related to global tax justice. This session will be structured around questions which have come up during each of the four other panels. A research assistant from the Graduate Institute will help guide us through this session

In cooperation with

Geneva Graduate Institue
Global Governance Centre

Swiss National Science Fundation

Fondation Pierre du Bois