Monday, August 17, 2020

Do Tax Lawyers Need Economists?

 Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Do Lawyers Need Economists?:

CambridgeKatja Langenbucher’s outstanding book [Economic Transplants: On Lawmaking for Corporations and Capital Markets (Cambridge University Press 2017)] seeks to address the question of why and in what ways have lawyers been importing economic theories into a legal environment, and how has this shaped scholarly research, judicial and legislative work? Since the financial crisis, corporate or capital markets law has been the focus of attention by academia and media. Formal modelling has been used to describe how capital markets work and, later, has been criticized for its abstract assumptions. Empirical legal studies and regulatory impact assessments offered different ways forward. This excellent book presents a new approach to the risks and benefits of interdisciplinary policy work. The benefits economic theory brings for reliable and tested lawmaking are contrasted with important challenges including the significant differences of research methodology, leading to misunderstandings and problems of efficient implementation of economic theory's findings into the legal world. Katja Langenbucher's innovative research scrutinizes the potential of economic theory to European legislators faced with a lack of democratic accountability.



Ivan Ozai (McGill), Two Accounts of International Tax Justice, 33 Can. J. L. & Juris. 1 (2020):

Criticisms over the current international tax regime often reflect two sets of accounts in how justice is perceived and discussed in the political philosophy literature. One account centres around distributive justice, which relates to how burdens and benefits should be distributed throughout society. The other account focuses primarily on political justice and examines the conditions for the democratically legitimate exercise of political power, on the grounds that justice is to be pursued by altering the processes and institutions that produce tax rules and systems. The two accounts are related since democratic legitimacy should comprise, to some extent, the set of conditions for any institution to pursue a just distribution of burdens and benefits. However, each account builds on distinct normative foundations and entails different requirements.



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