While tax lawyers have researched international tax law intensively, there is insufficient, if any, conversation on international taxation among scholars of public international law. Some excellent literature already exists on double taxation agreements, analysed in light of the law on treaties. However, the same cannot be said about the other two sources of international law, namely customary international law and general principles of law.
This research seminar presents a PhD project on custom and general principles governing international taxation from the perspective of a public international lawyer. The seminar will primarily focus on the complex, mixed-method inductive approach and the theoretical underpinnings required to discern custom and general principles of international taxation.
However, the seminar also illustrates these methodological and theoretical considerations with preliminary findings regarding specific principles of international tax law. Participants are invited to weigh in on this under-researched topic which has to grapple with issues of public international law, tax law and comparative law.
This seminar is a collaboration between the Tax Group and the Institute for International Law and the Humanities.
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Céline Braumann is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of International Law at the University of Vienna, where she teaches a course on “International Law Aspects of Tax Planning”. Her PhD project “The ‘International’ in International Tax Law” focuses on customary international law and general principles regarding international taxation. Céline has published and presented on the intersection of public international law and international tax law at various conferences (i.a. hosted by NYU, the Tax Justice Network or the European Society of International Law). She holds law degrees from the University of Vienna and NYU School of Law and pursues an economics degree to complement her perspective and set of skills.