Conference Announcement: Taxation without Borders – Contemporary and Future Challenges for the Power to Tax
The Critical Approaches to Taxation and Society Network (CATS Network) invites scholars, practitioners, and the interested public to participate in an international conference themed "Taxation without Borders – Contemporary and Future Challenges for the Power to Tax," to be held from October 16-18, 2024, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
About the Conference
The CATS Network, initiated by scholars from Swedish universities, will address the inadequacies of traditional taxation regimes in our rapidly changing world. This initiative responds to the urgent need for innovative fiscal solutions in the face of retreating democracy, rising inequality, and climate change. Placing debates of tax law within the broader ambits of history, economics, and sociology, and considering the fiscal state beyond divides between the national and international, CATS network invites scholarly conversation on tax and social critique.
The conference Taxation without Borders aims to not just bridge national borders, but also interdisciplinary borders as well as the borders between academia and policymakers. We therefore invite scholars from various fields such as economics, sociology and all legal disciplines.
The conference is fully booked and the registration therefore closed
Key Highlights
Expert Keynote Speakers
- Allison Christians, Professor of Taxation Law at McGill University, Canada, focuses on the socio-legal aspects of tax law within a global context.
- Tsilly Dagan, Professor of Taxation Law at Oxford University, examines the interaction between state and market in tax law and policy.
- Steven Dean, Professor of Taxation Law at Boston University, explores the connections between tax law and race, with a focus on Africa's decolonization and global tax regimes.
Sessions and Workshops
The conference will feature keynote lectures, collaborative workshops, and seminar streams, including:
- Fiscal Sociology and the Fiscal State: Interdisciplinary approaches to historical, sociological, and economic aspects of international taxation.
- The Color Line: Examining fiscal law and global labor divisions, addressing systemic racial inequalities.
- Austerity at Home, Imperialism Abroad: Integrated views on tax justice in the Nordics, considering both domestic austerity and international fiscal policies.
Day 1: 16/10
Room: C33 (School of Business, Economics and Law / Handelshögskolan)
A detailed description of how to find your way to, and around, the school is provided below.
13:00-13:30 Registration
13:30-14:00 Introduction
14:00-15:00 Keynote 1: Allison Christians: International tax at a critical moment: where are we, how did we get here, and where are we going?
15:00-15:30 Coffee break
15:30-17:00 Stream 1: Fiscal Law, the Offshore System and State building
Moderator: Alice Grudd
- Ezgi Arik, Power, Knowledge, and International Taxation: Uncovering the Tax Avoidance Discourses of the OECD and the UN (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Santtu Raitasaou, Theorizing tax avoidance - A critical legal perspective (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Olusegun Vincent, Impact of Institutions on Tax Evasion Perception: Institutional Theory Perspective (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Andreas Økland, Foreign investment in the Dubai housing market, 2020-2024 (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
Dinner 18:30 At Park (location: Kungsportsavenyn 36)
Day 2: 17/10
Room: Malmstensvåningen A6 (School of Business, Economics and Law / Handelshögskolan)
09:00 - 10:00 Keynote 2: Steven Dean: Fear of a Black Planet: Global Jim Crow and the Birth of the OECD
10:00-10:30 Coffee break
10:30-12:00 Stream 2: The Border Line: Tax Law and the Global Division of Labour
Moderator: Hedvig Lärka
- Kolawole Omole, Quantifying the Impact of International Tax Reform Proposals by the Global South (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Luiza Leite de Queiroz, Comes with the territory: sovereignty and territorial jurisdiction in the realisation of transnational tax justice (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Åsa Hansson, Labor taxation without borders: Is it necessary and desirable to coordinate labor taxation internationally? (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Maurits van de Sande, The residence based taxation bias: an analysis from a historical and economic perspective (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
12:00-13:30 Lunch
13:30-15:00 Stream 3: The Rules of the Game: constitutional, technocratic and methodological issues in critical tax law research
Moderator: Hedvig Lärka
- Teresa Simon-Almendal, Is the Rule of Law in a State of Flux (in Sweden)? (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Linda Sydänmaanlakka, Tax Expertise and the Separation of Powers (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Richard Croneberg, To Measure Is (Only) to Know? A Critical Assessment of the Swedish Consumer Price Index in the Wake of the Cost of Living Crisis (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Love Rönnelid, Which research questions yield critical thinking in legal scholarship? (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
15:00-15:30 Coffee break
15.30-17.00 Stream 4: Caring and sharing: Gender equality, distributive justice and climate issues in tax law
Moderator: Patrik Emblad
- Matti Ylönen, Why did (most) Nordic countries abolish their wealth taxes? (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Åsa Gunnarsson – Sustainable tax reforms on gender equality (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Abhishek Tripathy, Economic aspects of International Taxation: Understanding Environmental Taxes & Evaluating their Contemporary Relevance to Economies (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
- Peter Dietsch, A fairer and more effective carbon tax (15 min presentation, 5-7 min discussion)
18:30 Dinner, Chalmerska huset (Södra hamngatan 11, Göteborg)
Day 3: 18/10
Room: Malmstensvåningen A6 (School of Business, Economics and Law / Handelshögskolan)
09:00-10:00: Keynote 3, Tsilly Dagan: “The GLoBE Minimum Tax – What can we learn from LDCs consent?
10:00-10:30 Coffee break
10:30-12:30 The Bigger Picture: Joint discussion on the development of the CATS network and how to improve critical tax research.
Call for Abstracts
The conference welcomes submissions for abstracts in the following streams:
Fiscal Sociology and the Fiscal State: Exploring historical, sociological, and economic perspectives on international taxation.
Tax Law and the Color Line: Investigating fiscal law's role in global labor divisions and racial inequalities.
Austerity at Home, Imperialism Abroad: Examining the impact of austerity in Nordic countries and international fiscal policies.
Abstracts no longer than 300 words should be sent together with the applicant’s short bio note and affiliation via the registration form no later than the 1st of July 2024. Selected participants will be notified about their acceptation in the beginning of August.
Travel reimbursements and conference fee
There is no conference fee. Additionally, the participants are able to apply for a smaller reimbursement for their travel and accommodation costs. The degree to which we will be able to cover them depends upon the number of applicants and the size of the costs.
Participation and Registration
The CATS Network aims to foster a collaborative environment for innovative thinking, interdisciplinary research and problem-solving. The conference is open to legal scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and the general public interested in the evolving landscape of taxation and societal impact.
The registration is now closed.
Find your way to Handelshögskolan
From the airport
Airport bus to "Centralstationen", get off at "Korsvägen". Tram no 2 towards "Högsbotorp", get off at "Handelshögskolan".
From the train station
Tram no 2 towards "Högsbotorp", get off at "Handelshögskolan"
Tram no 3 and 6, get off at "Hagakyrkan". Three minute walk from the School.
Bus 25, 761 and Rosa Express, get off at "Pilgatan", right next to the School.
We also advise you to use the Travel planner to find your way from all corners within the greater Gothenburg area.
City map
If you are traveling by foot or car we advise you to use google maps to find your way to Vasagatan 1.
How to find the conference rooms:
The school of Business, Economics and Law is divided into separate buildings (A-E and J) according to the illustration below:
How to find C33 (1st day of the conference)
If you enter through the main entrance (Vasagatan 1), you’ll be entering the A-building. Walk to the left to enter the C-building. Take the elevator or the stairs to the third floor to find room C33.
If you travel by the tram no 2 you’ll be entering the school via Lilla Bergsgatan. Enter the door to the left and walk to the C-building where you’ll find C33.
How to find Malmstensvåningen (2nd and 3rd days of the conference)
If you enter through the main entrance (Vasagatan 1) take the first elevator to the 6th floor. Turn left and you’ve found it.
If you travel by the tram no 2 you’ll be entering the school via Lilla Bergsgatan. Enter the door to the left and continue until you reach the A-building (close to the library). Take the elevator to the 6th floor. Turn left and you’ve found it.
Contact
Patrik Emblad
Alice Grudd
Hedvig Lärka
Support and Funding
This conference is made possible with the support of Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Thanks to its support we’re able to establish the CATS Network as a pioneering force in Nordic tax law research and social critique.
Join us in October 2024 at the University of Gothenburg for an engaging and transformative exploration of taxation's role in contemporary and future societal challenges.