Seminar 4: Normative theories and research in taxation

Normative reasoning means, as stated by Kevin Michels, to ask the deep questions about “justice, fairness, and value that underlie our ordering of society”. These questions may as well be asked with a view to the norms and principles that underlie the international tax structure. Normative reasoning as a method to analyze what justice indeed requires often boils down to the question of “why?” Why should we apply a certain principle? Why should a certain principle be based on a reason and why is such a reason being considered to be normative? 

When discussing the most fundamental principles of (international) tax law, such as neutrality, equality among states, value creation, it is often difficult to pin down the reasons why a certain principle should indeed be considered valid. The colloquium will discuss the role that normative reasoning currently plays in (international) tax research and the role that it should play in view of the reform proposals that are currently on the table. 

Moderator: Yvette Lind (Assistant professor, Copenhagen Business School)

Johanna Stark (Post-doc at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance)

Johanna Stark is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich. She studied Philosophy at LMU Munich and at the University of Oxford, and also holds a law degree from LMU Munich. Her research interests are German and European private law, legal theory, and tax law. Her book on philosophical problems of regulatory competition (based on her Ph.D. thesis) was published by Oxford University Press in 2019. 

Peter Hongler (Professor in Tax Law at University of St. Gallen)

Peter Hongler is a Professor of Tax Law at the Law School, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). Hongler´s research is largely focused on the concept of justice in the context of international taxation.