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A Global Treaty Override? The New Oecd Multilateral Tax Instrument And Its Limits, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Haiyan Xu May 2018

A Global Treaty Override? The New Oecd Multilateral Tax Instrument And Its Limits, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Haiyan Xu

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will proceed as follows. Section 2 summarizes the main provisions of the MLI. Section 3 discusses the purpose of tax treaties in the twenty-first century, because it can be argued that they are less necessary under conditions of tax competition. Section 4 raises the question whether tax treaties can be improved short of a full-fledged multilateral tax treaty by inserting a most favored nation (MFN) provision similar to those found in bilateral investment treaties. Such an MFN provision operates over time to create a de facto multilateral treaty without the negotiation of one. Section 5 concludes this article.


Tax Symposium: Introduction, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Jan 2017

Tax Symposium: Introduction, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Michigan Journal of International Law

This issue of MJIL features four out of the many outstanding papers that were presented at a conference on Taxation and Citizenship held at Michigan Law in October 2015 and co-organized by Allison Christians and myself. The impetus for the conference was the realization that the unique U.S. practice of taxing its citizens on worldwide income, regardless of where they reside, has become a major flashpoint in the relationship between the United States and its citizens living overseas, and sometimes also between the United States and the country those citizens resided in.


Citizenship Overreach, Peter J. Spiro Jan 2017

Citizenship Overreach, Peter J. Spiro

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article examines international law limitations on the ascription of citizenship and national self-definition. The United States is exceptionally generous in its extension of citizenship. Alone among the major developed states, it extends citizenship to almost all persons in its territory at the moment of birth. This birthright citizenship is constitutionally protected under the Fourteenth Amendment. At the same time that it is generous at the front end, U.S. citizenship is sticky at the back. Termination of citizenship on the individual’s part can involve substantial fees. Expatriation is contingent on tax compliance and, in some cases, will implicate the recognition …


A Global Perspective On Citizenship-Based Taxation, Allison Christians Jan 2017

A Global Perspective On Citizenship-Based Taxation, Allison Christians

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article contends that, with regard to individuals who reside permanently outside of the United States, the global assistance sought under FATCA to enforce U.S. income taxation solely on the basis of citizenship violates international law. It argues that insisting upon foreign cooperation with the FATCA regime, under threat of serious economic penalties, is inconsistent with universally accepted norms regarding appropriate limits to the state’s jurisdiction to tax, while also being normatively unjustified. Accordingly, FATCA should be rejected by all other nation states to the extent it imposes any obligations with respect to individuals who permanently reside outside of, and …


Minimalism About Residence And Source, Wei Cui Jan 2017

Minimalism About Residence And Source, Wei Cui

Michigan Journal of International Law

In this Article, I relate the discomfort with fundamental principles in taxing individuals’ worldwide income to a problem that has attracted greater attention in recent years: the assignment of geographical sources to income. I suggest that there is substantial similarity between critiques of residence rules (of which critiques of citizenship-based taxation are examples) and critiques of source rules. However, I argue that problematic residence and source rules are only symptoms, not causes, of unsatisfactory conceptual paradigms in international taxation. Many scholars portray source and residence rules as inadequate means for achieving purportedly given normative objectives in the age of intense …


Defining Residence For Income Tax Purposes: Domicile As Gap-Filler, Citizenship As Proxy And Gap-Filler, Edward A. Zelinsky Jan 2017

Defining Residence For Income Tax Purposes: Domicile As Gap-Filler, Citizenship As Proxy And Gap-Filler, Edward A. Zelinsky

Michigan Journal of International Law

In this paper, I place the United States’ adherence to citizenship-based taxation in the context of the states’ tax systems. Forty-one states impose general income taxes on the worldwide incomes of their respective residents. These state tax systems are important repositories of experience that confirm the administrative benefits of citizenship-based taxation. Domicile today plays an important role in state tax systems as a gap-filler when more objective statutory residence laws fail to assign any state of residence to the taxpayer. Citizenship is an administrable proxy for domicile and serves a similar gap-filling role in the taxation of individuals whose income …


Reconstructing The Effective Control Criterion In Extraterritorial Human Rights Breaches: Direct Attribution Of Wrongfulness, Due Diligence, And Concurrent Responsibility, Vassilis P. Tzevelekos Sep 2014

Reconstructing The Effective Control Criterion In Extraterritorial Human Rights Breaches: Direct Attribution Of Wrongfulness, Due Diligence, And Concurrent Responsibility, Vassilis P. Tzevelekos

Michigan Journal of International Law

As one of the core elements of statehood, territory is inextricably linked to sovereignty. For this reason, jurisdiction is primarily territorial. In principle, the sphere of power of the sovereign state—including its competence to exercise legislative, judicial, and executive authority—applies within the confines of its own territory. Otherwise, the state risks interfering with the sovereignty of other states and thereby breaking one of the fundamental principles of Public International Law (PIL), that of sovereign equality. The principle of sovereign equality dictates that all assertions of jurisdiction have to be balanced with the sovereign rights of other states. This is why …


Formulary Appointment In The U.S. International Income Tax System: Putting Lipstick On A Pig?, J. Clifton Fleming Jr., Robert J. Peroni, Stephen E. Shay Sep 2014

Formulary Appointment In The U.S. International Income Tax System: Putting Lipstick On A Pig?, J. Clifton Fleming Jr., Robert J. Peroni, Stephen E. Shay

Michigan Journal of International Law

An affiliated corporate group consists of two or more corporations linked by sufficient stock ownership to cause them to function as an economic unit instead of as independent economic actors. Thus, an affiliated corporate group engaged in international business is often referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a term that we will use throughout this Article. When corporate members of an MNE engage in transactions among themselves, the prices they employ (transfer prices) will significantly affect the amount of overall MNE income that is allocated to each member and, hence, to the tax bases of the various countries in …


Reply To Andreas L. Paulus Consensus As Fiction Of Global Law, Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Gunther Teubner Jan 2004

Reply To Andreas L. Paulus Consensus As Fiction Of Global Law, Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Gunther Teubner

Michigan Journal of International Law

Andreas Paulus reminds us correctly that narratives "of a world of sovereign states loosely cooperating in 'coalitions of the willing' no longer tell the whole story." One of the achievements of the 20th century has been the insertion of a vertical dimension within horizontal international law; a dimension created by the ICJ's Traction decision and the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties, and within which we can observe "obligations arising for states without or against their will." Any narrative that characterizes these legal norms as a simple product of interstate consensus is particularly thin if analysis focuses upon the …


Some Troubling Elements In The Treaty Language Of The Rome Statute Of The International Criminal Court, Catherine R. Blanchet Jan 2003

Some Troubling Elements In The Treaty Language Of The Rome Statute Of The International Criminal Court, Catherine R. Blanchet

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note will examine problems that arise from the language of the Rome Statute itself. Part II will examine the potential strategic uses of the Rome Statute's jurisdictional aspects. It will also examine how the fairness concerns raised by this potential usage are exacerbated when the potential State abuser is a permanent member of the Security Council. Part III will look at the language of the Rome Statute's definition of crimes against humanity. It will also examine the various and varying interpretations of this language by the scholars and commentators who have examined the issue.


Is International Bankruptcy Possible?, Frederick Tung Jan 2001

Is International Bankruptcy Possible?, Frederick Tung

Michigan Journal of International Law

Although international business firms proliferate, there is no international bankruptcy system. Instead, bankruptcy law remains a matter for individual states. The failure of a multinational firm therefore raises difficult questions of conflict and cooperation among national bankruptcy laws. In the discourse over the appropriate design for an international bankruptcy system, universalism has long held sway as the dominant idea, embraced nearly universally by bankruptcy scholars. Universalism offers a simple and elegant blueprint for international bankruptcy. Under universalism, the bankruptcy regime of the debtor firm's home country would govern worldwide, enjoying global reach to treat all of the debtor's assets and …


Trade And Inequality: Economic Justice And The Developing World, Frank J. Garcia Jan 2000

Trade And Inequality: Economic Justice And The Developing World, Frank J. Garcia

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article attempts to lay the foundation for such a framework in the area of international trade law. More specifically, this Article develops the argument that the principle of special and differential treatment, a key element of the developing world's trade agenda, plays a central role in satisfying the moral obligations that wealthier states owe poorer states as a matter of distributive justice. Seen in this light, the principle of special and differential treatment is more than just a political accommodation: it reflects a moral obligation stemming from the economic inequality among states.


The Desirability Of Agreeing To Disagree: The Wto, Trips, International Ipr Exhaustion And A Few Other Things, Vincent Chiappetta Jan 2000

The Desirability Of Agreeing To Disagree: The Wto, Trips, International Ipr Exhaustion And A Few Other Things, Vincent Chiappetta

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article proposes a procedural and substantive approach specifically designed to achieve this result. Concerning process, interim national and regional decisionmaking and the multilateral debate must expressly broaden and clarify the values and interests at stake. Three basic operational principles advance this objective. First, comparisons based on IPR labels (patent, copyright, and the like) confuse rather than illuminate. Instead, focus must be on the actual underlying policy justifications and objectives. Second, the full range of implicated justifications (economic and otherwise), including those outside the decision-makers' own norms, must be expressly identified and considered. Finally, any position taken or decision reached …


The Statute Of The International Criminal Court And Third States, Gennady M. Danilenko Jan 2000

The Statute Of The International Criminal Court And Third States, Gennady M. Danilenko

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper examines the principal legal and political effects of the Rome Statute on non-parties. In particular, it explores the significance of the creation of a new powerful international institution for all members of the international community. It discusses the jurisdictional reach of the ICC which will inevitably affect all States. This paper also analyzes possible application of some provisions of the Rome Statute to non-States Parties in so far as these may reflect or generate customary international law. It suggests that despite the traditional principle of treaty law, according to which treaties do not bind Third States, the Rome …


The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act As A Threat To Global Harmony, Steven R. Salbu Jan 1999

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act As A Threat To Global Harmony, Steven R. Salbu

Michigan Journal of International Law

Focusing primarily on the pragmatic and moral perils of cultural imperialism, I also alluded very briefly to a "political peril" that arises from the FCPA. This peril consists of the added risk of cross-national hostility that is attributable to officious and overreaching legislation across national borders. This article will examine the political hazard in greater detail, explaining why the proliferation of FCPA-style legislation unjustifiably increases the threat to global harmony.


Are Extraterritorial Restrictions On Bribery A Viable Policy Goal Under The Global Conditions Of The Late Twentieth Century? Increasing Global Security By Controlling Transnational Bribery, Philip M. Nichols Jan 1999

Are Extraterritorial Restrictions On Bribery A Viable Policy Goal Under The Global Conditions Of The Late Twentieth Century? Increasing Global Security By Controlling Transnational Bribery, Philip M. Nichols

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper argues that global security can no longer be evaluated in the realist terms of the sovereignty of nations, and that global insecurity does not arise merely from a handful of relatively straightforward issues. As an analytical tool, this paper turns instead to the concept of "complex interdependence" put forward by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye. This paper then demonstrates how transnational bribery damages the quality of transnational relationships, thus endangering global security. The paper concludes by examining empirical observations. Empirically, transnational bribery has contributed significantly to global instability. On the other hand, no empirical observations suggest that extraterritorial …


Does The Emperor Have No Clothes? Enforcement Of International Laws Protecting The Marine Environment, David S, Ardia Jan 1998

Does The Emperor Have No Clothes? Enforcement Of International Laws Protecting The Marine Environment, David S, Ardia

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article examines existing structures and mechanisms for the enforcement of international environmental laws, particularly international laws that must confront violations on the high seas in order to protect marine organisms. Although the tenor of the present analysis is general, many of the most influential international marine agreements to date are highlighted, including the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Future Multilateral Co-Operation in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, and the United Nations Agreement on the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stock and Highly Migratory Fish Stock.


The State And The Post-Cold War Refugee Regime: New Models, New Questions, Julie Mertus Jan 1998

The State And The Post-Cold War Refugee Regime: New Models, New Questions, Julie Mertus

Michigan Journal of International Law

The thesis of this essay is that within the refugee regime the move away from states and adherence to states are two sides of the same coin. To some degree the new refugee regime reflects the trend away from both the state and strict notions of sovereignty. Nonetheless, the new regime also exposes the staying power of the statist paradigm. In many respects, the role of states has indeed been altered, but states have retained their role as important and often essential actors. While other observers have commented on specific geographic or thematic changes in the refugee regime, this essay …


The Effect Of The Statist-Political Approach To International Jurisdiction Of The Income Tax Regime- The Israeli Case, David Gliksberg Jan 1994

The Effect Of The Statist-Political Approach To International Jurisdiction Of The Income Tax Regime- The Israeli Case, David Gliksberg

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article proceeds from the general to the particular, by first presenting the principles of international jurisdiction of the international taxation regime and their connection with statist thinking, and then examining the rules of international jurisdiction of income taxation in Israel and the influence of the statist conception in Israel on the formation of those rules.


Choosing Law With An Eye On The Prize, Russell J. Weintraub Jan 1994

Choosing Law With An Eye On The Prize, Russell J. Weintraub

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of Choice of Law and Multistate Justice by Friedrich K. Juenger


Bringing Down Private Trade Barriers- An Assessment Of The United States' Unilateral Options: Section 301 Of The 1974 Trade Act And Extraterritorial Applications Of U.S. Antitrust Law, Aubry D. Smith Jan 1994

Bringing Down Private Trade Barriers- An Assessment Of The United States' Unilateral Options: Section 301 Of The 1974 Trade Act And Extraterritorial Applications Of U.S. Antitrust Law, Aubry D. Smith

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note examines how the antitrust and trade law options operate, with the two-fold purpose of providing some idea of their potential effectiveness and also suggesting what limitations, if any, should be placed on their use. Parts I and II analyze the mechanics of applying the antitrust and Section 301 remedies to eliminate foreign trade-restrictive business practices. In light of this discussion of how the two processes work, Part III considers whether they are likely to get out of control and suggests how they ought to be restrained. Part III finds that Section 301 is subject to a number of …


Coordinated Transnational Interaction In Civil Litigation And Arbitration, Peter F. Schlosser Jan 1990

Coordinated Transnational Interaction In Civil Litigation And Arbitration, Peter F. Schlosser

Michigan Journal of International Law

About fifteen years ago, an English shipowner chartered his vessel, the Mareva, to time charterers. After a while, the charterers discontinued payment on the charter and the shipowner instituted court proceedings against them. The plaintiff, concerned about the ability and willingness of the defendants to satisfy an expected judgment, simultaneously applied for a preliminary injunction restraining the defendants from disposing of a subcharter which had been paid into their London bank account. The injunction was granted. Since then, injunctions of this kind have been denominated "Mareva injunctions," although it was the second, rather than the first, case where such an …


The Contours Of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction In Drug Smuggling Cases, Stephen E. Chelberg Jan 1983

The Contours Of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction In Drug Smuggling Cases, Stephen E. Chelberg

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note examines the contours of U.S. jurisdiction over drug smugglers on the high seas. After a brief discussion of the two principal U.S. drug statutes, the note considers the territorial and protective principles of jurisdiction as defined by U.S. courts. Controversy currently centers around whether U.S. drug laws apply to foreign ships, carrying controlled substances on the high seas, where there has been no showing of an intent to import the drugs into the United States.


Jurisdictional Bases For Criminal Legislation And Its Enforcement, B.J. George Jr. Jan 1983

Jurisdictional Bases For Criminal Legislation And Its Enforcement, B.J. George Jr.

Michigan Journal of International Law

The doctrine of jurisdiction-the authority of nations or states to create or prescribe penal or regulatory norms and to enforce them through administrative and judicial action- has been a source of difficulty in both international and domestic law for centuries. The last two decades, however, have witnessed more conflicts over the invocation of forum penal laws to reach persons and activities outside national boundaries than had arisen for more than a century before. Moreover, treaties restricting some dimensions of penal jurisdiction based on other than the territorial concept have become increasingly common, and some nations have legislated to prevent their …