Forthcoming Conference

The Delicate Balance: Revenue Authority Discretions and the Rule of Law

23-24 September 2010, Monash Prato Centre, Italy

A workshop sponsored by the Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute at Monash University, Atax, University of New South Wales, and the Centre for Business Taxation at Oxford University.

Many scholars have concluded that the complexity of modern economies and the flexibility of commercial arrangements are inherently incompatible with "simple" tax systems -- tax laws become complex in response to the world to which they apply. One technique increasingly used by governments to mitigate the growth of tax law is delegation of decision-making to tax administrations. In effect, legislative amendment is replaced grants of administrative discretion. The extent to which discretions are exercised in a consistent or transparent process varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, as do views on the extent to which the growing use of discretions is incompatible with fundamental principles of the rule of law.

The workshop will explore the tension between discretions and the rule of law across a range of jurisdictions representing a cross-section of the world's economies.

Speakers include:

• Professor Kim Brooks, McGill University, Canada
• Associate Professor Wei Cui, China Unversity of Political Science and Law, PR China
• Professor Chris Evans, University of New South Wales, Australia
• Professor Judith Freedman, Oxford University, UK
• Mr. Christophe Grandcolas, formerly French Tax Administration (DGI), France
• Mr Marco Greggi, University of Ferrara, Italy
• Ms. Shelley Griffiths, University of Otago, New Zealand
• Professor Andrew Halkyard, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• Professor Richard Happe, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands
• Mr. Ernest Mazansky, Werksmans, South Africa
• Associate Professor Michael Walpole, Atax, University of New South Wales, Australia

Sponsors

Institute Director

Professor Rick Krever