Banking and Finance Law Commons^™

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' (Part 2), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This is the second in a four-part series addressing VAT/GST avoidance schemes involving remote sales of services. These schemes have been growing in importance. The IMF reports that the services component of cross-border trade has been on the rise for fifty-years or more, making the Internet a serious threat to revenue. Technology has accelerated tax avoidance.

Statutory draftsmen in New Zealand have looked at this problem directly with what has been called the Netflix Tax. Technologist in Fiji have been struggling with similar problems and have developed technology-based security systems that would seem to address remote sales of services more …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' (Part 1), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade the VAT in the South Pacific has been changing. More change is coming. Change is needed in both the larger economies (Australia and New Zealand) and the smaller ones (the Pacific Island Countries or PICs). The changes we see currently are propelled by cross-border remote sales of services and low-value goods.

The government response in the South Pacific is not uniform. The larger economies have relied on statutory remedies; the smaller economies are turning to technology. The larger economies are crafting complex, extra-territorial compliance provisions targeting remote sellers. The smaller economies are mandating secure digital invoices, …

Given Today's New Wave Of Protectionsim, Is Antitrust Law The Last Hope For Preserving A Free Global Economy Or Another Nail In Free Trade's Coffin?, Allison Murray

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Financial Repression In China: Short-Term Growth But Long-Term Crisis, Guangdong Xu, Michael Faure

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Venezuela Undermines Gold Miner Crystallex's Attempts To Recover On Its Icsid Award, Sam Wesson

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Return Of Deregulation And Trickle-Down Economics In The Age Of Trump: Why The Efficient Market Hypothesis Refuses To Die And The Implications For U.S. Economic Policy At Large, 5 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 1 (2019), Matthew Glass

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

The 2008 market collapse created economic devastation not seen in the United States since the Great Depression. More than a decade later, the reappearance of a fiscal agenda rooted in deregulation and trickle-down economics risks a return to the boom and bust cycles that have unfailingly wrought great economic pain on the American people. The ever-increasing inequality gap between the rich and poor is particularly concerning.

Should Cryptocurrencies And Initial Coin Offerings (Icos) Be Regulated Under Australian Financial Services Laws?, 5 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 27 (2019), Daniela Lai

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

The rise of the popularity of cryptocurrencies in the last few years has sparked international debate as to the characterization of cryptocurrencies and tokens issued by ICOs. The decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies and ICOs raises fundamental challenges as to the parties and tokens that should be regulated and how they should be regulated. This Article proposes that tokens which are similar to securities should be regulated like securities. Under Australian law, this Article proposes that digital currencies should be categorized as financial products with the exception of utility tokens. Entities issuing ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges should be subject to disclosure …

Replacing Libor: Dangerous Improvisation, 5 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 49 (2019), Karl Muth

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

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Cross-Border Scope Of Private Cause Of Action Under The Commodity Exchange Act, 5 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 58 (2019), Alina Petrova

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

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Can “Imfcoin” Be Scaruffi's Moneta Immaginaria?, Alexander M. Heideman

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm. But these decentralized and unregulated digital fiat currencies have more in common with the currencies of ages past than many believe. These commonalities may result in the incorporation of new cryptocurrencies into older institutions. One such institution is the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), which has bene relegated to an afterthought in the international monetary system since the Nixon Shock in 1971. The Fund's Managing Director recently made comments that indicated that the Fund is exploring the incorporation of a cryptocurrency into the framework of the SDR, a change which China …

The Next Global Disruptive Innovation: Can Mobile Money Make The Journey Upmarket To Disrupt The Financial Services Industry?, David Myerson

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Investment Treaties On Health And Human Rights, Gus Van Harten

Articles & Book Chapters

While investment treaties could help protect health and promote human rights, they are rather often used as a means to discourage governments from taking action. The treaties allow foreign investors to initiate investor-state dispute settlement (or ISDS) proceedings against states for their legislative, executive, administrative, and judicial decisions at any level. Thus, they provide a powerful tool for “foreign” investors to frustrate state action in virtually any area, including health and human rights. This article describes how ISDS provisions have impacted health-related decision- making by states and, in so doing, weakened their abilities to fulfill their human rights obligations.

Implementing A Portable Reciprocity Passport To Crowdfund Real Estate Across Borders, Raymond Tran

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

No abstract provided.

Transparency In Corporate Groups, Jay Lawrence Westbrook

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

This Article addresses a remarkable blind spot in American law: the failure to apply the well-established principles of secured credit to prevent inefficiency, confusion, and fraud in the manipulation of the webs of subsidiaries within corporate groups. In particular, “asset partitioning” has been a fashionable subject in which the central problem of non-transparency has been often mentioned but little addressed. This Article offers a concept for a new system of corporate disclosure for the benefit of creditors and other stakeholders. It would require disclosure of corporate structures and allocations of assets among affiliates to the extent the affiliates are to …

Rethinking International Investment Governance: Principles For The 21st Century, Emma Aisbett, Barnali Choudhury, Olivier De Schutter, Frank Garcia, James Harrison, Song Hong, Lise Johnson, Mouhamadou Kane, Santiago Peña, Matthew Porterfield, Susan Sell, Stephen E. Shay, Louis T. Wells

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Books

Rethinking International Investment Governance: Principles for the 21st Century – written over the course of a week by a distinguished group of experts in international economic governance using the Booksprint process – aims to serve as a practical resource for those interested in the elements of an international investment system that promotes sustainable development and achieves legitimacy by providing benefits to all stakeholders.

The objective of Rethinking International Investment Governance is to change the terms of the debate so that societal values and goals are at the center of discussions about each reform proposal and process. This book rethinks international …

Leaders In The Expansive And Restrictive Interpretation Of Investment Treaties: A Descriptive Study Of Isds Awards To 2010, Gus Van Harten

Articles & Book Chapters

This article provides an empirical analysis of interpretive discretion in investor–state dis- pute settlement (ISDS). Since the late 1990s, foreign investors have brought hundreds of investment treaty claims against states, leading to numerous awards in which arbitrators have interpreted investment treaties. Arbitrators may resolve ambiguities in the treaties in expansive or restrictive ways, thereby affecting the compensatory promise of ISDS for foreign investors and corresponding risks for states. Which arbitrators have contributed most to expansive or restrictive approaches? To examine this question, data was analysed on arbitrators’ resolutions of contested legal issues, such as the permissibility of parallel or minority …

A Vatcoin Solution To Mtic Fraud: Past Efforts, Present Technology, And The Eu’S 2017 Proposal, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi, Mike Cheetham, Camille Tirand

Faculty Scholarship

On October 4, 2017, in an effort to recover some of the VAT lost annually, the European Commission proposed “far-reaching reforms.” The immediate target is a €50 billion slice of an estimated €150 billion overall annual loss. In its proposal the Commission is looking only at Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud in goods.

Goods (alone) are targeted. If we have learned anything about MTIC fraud since January 1, 1993, it is that fraudsters engaged in this activity are exceptionally agile. MTIC frauds migrate and mutate on command. For example, MTIC fraud in cell phones quickly migrated to computer chips in …

The Restructuring Plan And The Role Of Foreign Investments In Italian System, Vito Cozzoli, Antonio Morelli

Arbitration Brief

No abstract provided.

Sustaining The Growth Of Mobile Money Services In Developing Nations: Lessons From Overregulation In The United States, Amanda B. Kernan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Billions of people around the world are excluded from the formal financial system and forced to store, transfer, and borrow money by using inefficient and unsafe methods. The recent introduction of mobile money programs in developing countries is revolutionizing financial inclusion by allowing users to store and transfer money on their mobile phones, thereby eliminating the need to access a bank or an internet connection. Unfortunately, fears that these programs will be used to launder money and finance terrorism have led the international community to develop and implement restrictive anti-money laundering policies that will likely impede the growth and accessibility …

Palm Papers, Nicole Rothwell

Capstones

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) came into possession of a secret dataset of property owners of the Palm Islands, the elite high-end artificial islands on the coast of Dubai.

With over 250 neighborhoods on Dubai’s waterfront, a group of journalists around the world has been investigating who these individuals are that can afford the posh and pricey real estate. While most fall into the uber-rich category, some also have corrupt to criminal backgrounds leading to questions such as if the Palm Islands are truly a real-estate paradise, or instead a refuge for the corrupt.

The task for …

Evaluating Financial Integration And Cooperation In The Asean, Brendan Harvey

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Financial integration is less pronounced in the ASEAN than other mea-sures of economic integration. This is particularly apparent when com-pared against other regions that have undergone similar integrative efforts, such as the European Union. Cross-border trade flows, foreign-direct in-vestment, and investment in capital goods outstrip other investment flows. Regional institutional and legal structures governing these investment flows, while limited, present marked achievements towards creating an ASEAN financial community. The gap persists despite suggestions that the Asian Financial Crisis and the Global Financial Crisis (or the North Atlan-tic Financial Crisis from the Asian and Stiglitz perspective) would acceler-ate financial regionalism as …

The First Real-Time Blockchain Vat - Gcc Solves Mtic Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Following years of study the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) appears ready to adopt the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and put in place a tax system that will stabilize revenue. A value added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax (CIT) are considered. A VAT Framework Agreement, that functions like the VAT Directive in the EU, has been agreed.

Although new, the GCC VAT is very worthy of attention. From a tax policy perspective, it is making notable improvements to EU VAT design. The GCC VAT is (potentially) the world’s first real-time, blockchain-secured, multi-jurisdictional VAT. This is a remarkable …

Maintaining Individual Liability In Aml And Cybersecurity At New York's Financial Institutions, Harry Dixon

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Cinderella Sovereignty, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Joseph Blocher and Mitu Gulati propose an insightful and thought-provoking critique of the barriers to secession under public international law. The critique an important contribution in its own right. I wish it had not been eclipsed by the authors’ clever and provocative fix: turning sovereignty into a tradable commodity. I suspect that this fix would bring about more suffering than the status quo for two reasons. First, a market for sovereign control is unlikely to be a market in any meaningful sense. Therefore, trading sovereignty would not discipline oppressors. Second, should something like a real market materialize, it could diminish …

Blockchain, Bitcoin, And Vat In The Gcc: The Missing Trader Example, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Blockchain is coming to tax administration and will cause fundamental change. This article considers the potential for blockchain technology as it applies to the introduction of a value added tax in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Blockchain technology disrupts centralized ledgers. Blockchain improves efficiency, security and transparency. Perhaps no centralized ledger system presents more challenges than that of the modern tax administration. The central data storage system of a modern tax authority contains all return, payment, and audit activity for all taxpayers arranged tax-by-tax for three years or longer periods of time.

It is likely that blockchain will come first to …

Irs's Cp-2000 E-Mail Scams - Never In Dubai - Common In Canada & The Uk, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On September 22, 2016 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its Security Summit partners issued an alert to taxpayers and tax professionals to be on guard against fake e-mails purporting to contain a tax bill related to the Affordable Care Act. Surprisingly, this e-mail scam works. It really should not.

Modern technology is facilitating many contemporary tax scams. In recent years the US has seen false (refund) return scams, phone scammers impersonation IRS agents, and now e-mail scams with fraudulent CP-2000 notices attached to a demand for payment. The same phone and e-mail frauds have appeared in both Canada and …

The New Era Of Doing Business With Iran: Iran’S International Commercial Transactions And Global Security, John Changiz Vafai

Pace International Law Review

On January 17, 2016, in a statement following his signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, President Obama addressed that country’s people, stating that “yours is a great civilization, with a vibrant culture that has so much to contribute to the world – in commerce, and in science and the arts.” While the former U.S. President’s evaluation of the Iranian people’s greatness is indisputable, there are questions concerning doing business with Iran which transcend conventional legal issues and commercial problems.

Given the juxtaposition of Iran’s duopolistic government structure and ideologically oriented decision-making processes, questions arise as …

The E—2 Treaty Investor Visa Dilemma: Violations Of Law And Limitations On Foreign Investment, Tiana J. Cherry

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Exploring Cuba's New Role In The World Economy: Paths And Perils, Wentong Zheng

UF Law Faculty Publications

With the normalization of relations with the United States and other countries, Cuba is ushering in a new era with unprecedented opportunities in a globalized world. Participating in the world economy, however, is a risky proposition. It requires policymakers to carefully weigh the pros and cons of each development path and choose the one that best suits Cuba. It also requires policymakers to be prepared for the perils, both economic and legal, that may arise from Cuba's participation in the world economy. This Article explores Cuba's new role in the world economy and the perils that accompany this new role. …