Legal Protection Against Discriminatory Tax Legislation

In any democratically constituted regime, the real value of the principle of equality can be measured in a very revealing way: by evaluating the consistency and impartiality of tax legislation and its judicial review. Such an evaluation, using a comparative approach to applicable law in several European jurisdictions, is essentially what this book provides. The authors examine such areas as: national variations in the extent of judicial power to review tax legislation; discriminatory tax legislation arising as a response to interest group pressures; the European Convention on Human Rights as the basis for the development of a fully operational principle of equality and the degree of appreciation that should be accorded the democratically legitimized legislature by the judiciary. It also covers: the obligation to provide actual redress to victims of discrimination and the effect of the principle of freedom of establishment on the rules of international tax law.;The authors refer throughout to all relevant sources of applicable law, including national constitutions, legislation and case law; th EC Treaty and the European Convention on Human Rights; and the case law of the European Court of Justice and the Euroepan Court of Human Rights.