Taxation-Transnational Commons^™

Tax Treaty Overrides: A Qualified Defence Of U.S. Practice, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Book Chapters

The ability of some countries to unilaterally change, or "override;' their tax treaties through domestic legislation has frequently been identified as a serious threat to the bilateral tax treaty network. In most countries, treaties (including tax treaties) have a status superior to that of ordinary domestic laws (see, e.g. France, Germany, the Netherlands). However, in some countries (primarily the US, but also to some extent the UK and Australia) treaties can be changed unilaterally by subsequent domestic legislation. This result clearly violates international law as embodied by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties ("VCLT"), which is recognized as …

Tax Arbitrage And The International Tax Regime, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Book Chapters

It is a great pleasure to introduce my student Luca Dell'Anese's book on tax arbitrage. This is an important book on an important topic, which lies at the heart of the current debate on whether an international tax regime exists in practice.

I have argued for many years (see, e.g., Avi-Yonah, 1996, 1997, 2000) that a coherent international tax regime exists, embodied in both the tax treaty network and in domestic laws, and that it forms a significant part of international law (both treatybased and customary). The practical implication is that countries are not free to adopt any international tax …