Governments and international organizations are seeking new initiatives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One area where these initiatives have clearly emerged is in the field of taxation since a well-designed domestic (national) tax system can contribute to promote investment and to protect their revenue base. It is through their own tax revenues that developing countries themselves can generate the funding they need to achieve the SDGs. 

Tax can contribute to alleviating poverty by increasing the competitiveness of the country vis-a-vis other countries in the region and to tackle global inequality by contributing to transfer of knowledge in different sectors of the economy. As a consequence, policy makers in international organizations, domestic lawmakers, tax administrations, and business are required to understand the role of taxation to build a sustainable and fair society, as well as the choices made by countries when designing their domestic (national) tax system.

This course starts with a contextualization of the relationship between tax and society by explaining the linkage of taxes to different SDGs. Thereafter the use of the theory of legal transplant in tax law will be presented. Thereafter, the use of the standard of fairness in taxation will be addressed. Finally, and in light of the theoretical background provided above, we will investigate the impact of the current developments in international tax law taking into account the differences between developing and developed countries. For this purpose, we will use three cases studies: aggressive tax planning mainly treaty shopping, taxation of highly digitalized business and introduction of a minimum tax. In these case studies, we will address the different proposals made by international organizations regional tax organizations, think tanks and civil society, countries and academics on how to address these issues. 

> 70% attendance requirement

The assessment will be assessed as follows: 10% literature review assignment, 10% class presentation and  80% exam.