Assaf Harpaz (Georgia) will be presenting his article “Toward a Theory of Tax Sovereignty” at the National Business Law Scholars Conference 2026, as part of the panel on Tax Theory & Policy. The conference is hosted by the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Here’s the abstract of the paper:

Tax sovereignty is traditionally understood to encompass a government’s right to design and enforce its tax laws without infringement. The principle has been frequently invoked in the context of multilateral initiatives to combat tax competition and evasion, yet it remains vague and underdeveloped. In recent years, international taxation has been characterized by an increase in national revenue preservation, forum-shopping, and unilateralism. These dynamics are reflected in the Trump administration’s rejection of the Global Tax Deal, the efforts of developing countries to shift tax policymaking to the United Nations, and the proliferation of unilateral digital services taxes.

This Article proposes a doctrinal account of tax sovereignty for an international tax order in which cooperation and standardization are progressively contested. It draws on tax and international law scholarship to distinguish between procedural sovereignty, which includes the state’s authority to freely participate in cooperative forums, and substantive sovereignty, which refers to the right to independently draft tax legislation. The Article ultimately argues that tax sovereignty should operate as a doctrine with well-defined parameters rather than an unrestricted claim of fiscal autonomy. In doing so, it provides a framework for evaluating competing claims of tax sovereignty and assessing the legitimacy of tax policies with cross-border implications.