The successful ILS Lunch Seminar of November in hindsight
On Thursday 8 November, the ILS Lunch Seminar of November took place. Philippe van Gruisen and Almut Breuer, Assistant Professors at the Institutes of Economics and Tax Law at Leiden Law School, presented their current research.
Philippe van Gruisen gave the first presentation on “The Effect of Treaty Revisions on EU Policy-Making”. His research on the Early Warning System (EWS) and everyday decision making in the EU measures the efficiency of the legal framework that the EU wanted to accomplish with the introduction of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009. In his presentation, Philippe explained how the EWS affects legislative decision-making in the Council specifically and in the EU more broadly. In the current literature the EWS has been labelled as ineffective, since over the past years there have only been three so-called ‘yellow cards’ and of those three, in two instances the European Commission decided not to withdraw their legislative proposals. Contrary to the dominant view in literature, the research that Philippe undertakes shows that the EWS can be useful as a signalling device and increase the probability of proposal failure.
The second presentation was given by Almut Breuer on “Taxpayers' Rights in a National, EU and International Law Context”. Having the German nationality but living and working in the Netherlands for the past 10 years, Almut is able to conduct extensive comparative research between the German and Dutch legal systems. The specific characteristics of Germany and the Netherlands have had their influences on both tax systems, which makes for differences between the Dutch and German approach to taxpayers’ rights. Almut ended her insightful presentation with some propositions for both tax systems, such as that the Netherlands should no longer allow the tax inspector to impose fines and insert the possibility for constitutional review. On the other hand, Germany should grant precedence to international treaties and should implement right of rebuttal in all anti-abuse provisions.
The next ILS Lunch Seminar will take place on Thursday 13 December, from 13:00 – 14:00 hrs in KOG A0.08. Irma Mosquera, Adrian Grant and Frederik Heitmüller will give a presentation on “Global Tax Governance”. Lunch is provided at the monthly seminars and there is no need to register, just join!
Would you like to present yourself and your research? Do not hesitate to contact our ILS student assistant! More information can be found on our website.