The Institute of Tax Law and Economics at Leiden Law School has three departments: the Department of Tax Law, the Department of Economics and the Department of Business Studies. The Institute brings together research and teaching at the point at which, on the one hand, law and, on the other, fiscal matters, economics and business studies meet. Its interdisciplinary approach mean that the Institute is often asked to advise the government on future policy.

Tax Law

The Department of Tax Law focuses on the entire taxation system, thus covering national and international tax law, European tax law and formal and material tax law. 

The emphasis of the Department’s teaching lies on acquiring a thorough knowledge of tax, and in particular income tax, conveyance tax and international tax law. Attention is also paid to the basic tenets and public perceptions of taxation. The research at the Department is informed by the Limits of Tax Jurisdiction research programme, the focus of which is the limits to a state’s power to violate the rights of citizens through taxation.

Economics

Socio-economic issues, fiscal economics, and law and economics are the central themes at the Department of Economics. Students are familiarised with free-market issues, social security and economic policy within the European Union. The Department also offers the bachelor’s specialisation in Economics, Public Administration and Management in collaboration with the Institute of Public Administration from the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs in The Hague, and provides a large number of courses for this.

Much of the research at the Department of Economics focuses on the Reform of Social Legislation programme, a research programme that is financed in part with external funds. The programme is charting the socio-economic effects of changes to the social security and pensions system. Research is also conducted at the Department into the effects of criminal sanctions. Within the large-scale Faculty research programme on Interaction between Legal Systems, research is conducted into the effects of migration on social security systems. Within this context, the Department works together with several other ones.

Business Studies

The Department of Business Studies, which for its part works closely with the Department of Company Law, focuses on issues in the field of entrepreneurship, management and insolvency. The teaching is interdisciplinary: the Department provides courses for the bachelor’s programmes in Law, Notarial Law and Fiscal Law. Researchers from the Department also teach at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, the Faculty of Science and Leiden University College (LUC).

The researchers at the Department mainly focus on turnaround management and insolvency law. These themes are always topical: the societal effects of businesses in financial trouble attract attention in both good and bad economic times. What makes this research unique is the attention paid to the early recognition of symptoms and causes of insolvency.