TaxProf Blog

Tuesday, June 8, 2004

Following yesterday’s call for Tax Profs to become more engaged in the Law & Society Annual Meeting, David Brennen (Mercer) makes a similar plea on behalf of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities (ASLCH):

ASLCH’s website states:

ASLCH is dedicated to establishing links between scholars who work in both law and the humanities. We sponsor an annual conference where interested scholars from disciplines including Law, English, Comparative Literature, History, Philosophy, Classics, Linguistics, Religion, Anthropology, and Cultural Studies can meet and discuss their latest work. The ASLCH hopes to encourage interdisciplinary scholarship that brings together the best of the various humanities and legal approaches and methods.

I like ASLCH because the panels are centered around broad theoretical themes, of which tax law may be a component. I am working on alternatives to the traditional law and economics approach to law, with a particular focus on law and market theory as it relates to the federal income tax exemption. If anyone is working on something similar and is interested in possibly putting together a thematic panel which is exclusively (or only partially) tax-focused, please let me know.

Another TaxProf Blog tip of the hat to Professor Brennen for his efforts!

Monday, June 7, 2004

Guest blogger Walter Schwidetzky (Baltimore) shares his final report on the Paris meeting of the European Association of Tax Professors (see his first report here):

One of the issues facing the EU countries is how to deal with the fact that they have a variety of tax systems but are subject to the jurisdiction of the EJC that can issue rulings that can require them to change their tax laws. Uniform tax systems across the EC would aid in the formation of a common market, and one question that arose at the conference is whether thre was some basis for developing a common system. One proposal in this regard was internatinal accounting standards currently usually used by larger companies. Indeed, something similar to that exists in the UK, and a UK representative gave a talk in this regard. The UK apparently incorporates some mark to market rules as do the accounting standards, and there was a discussion of the viability of this and whether it was appropriate to move away from realisation principles, particularly in light of the fact that most EC businesses are small. A concern was also expressed of whether accounting rules developed by a private body (IATLB) were an appropriate starting point for democratically enacted statutes, and some felt that the rules were too business friendly. There would also inevitably be pressure on the various governments to engage in various tax expenditures in the context of each country’s political dynamic; making it difficult to maintain consistent rules across the EC.

The overall level of the discussion was high and rather more formal than would have occurred in the US (as was the dress). There were about 7 US Tax Pros at the meeting.

Monday, June 7, 2004

Neil Buchanan (Rutgers-Newark) reports that at last weekend’s Law & Society Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, there were nearly 300 scholarly panels spread out over four days, but not a single tax panel. He challenges Tax Profs to get on the stick and organize one or more tax panels for next year’s annual meeting in Las Vegas on June 2-5, 2005:

It is, of course, always possible for anyone to submit a panel idea–or an individual paper proposal–to the association office directly. But since I’m complaining publicly about this issue, I guess I’m also volunteering to do some organizing. Therefore, if anyone is thinking that far ahead and wants to present some tax work at next year’s meetings, please let me know.

A TaxProf Blog tip of the hat to Professor Buchanan for his efforts!