Tax Treaty Dispute Resolution: Lessons from the Law of the Sea

ax Treaty Dispute Resolution is a first-of-its-kind comparative study premised on certain vital geopolitical similarities that underpin the international tax regime (ITR) and the law of the sea regime while considering the differences in the institutional context of both regimes. Stakeholders in the international taxation community agree that existing dispute resolution processes need improvement, and a global consensus must be achieved. This book renders a potential restructuring of the tax treaty dispute resolution system based on a comparative analysis of the dispute resolution mechanisms under tax treaties, as prescribed in the OECD and UN models, on the one hand, and the UN Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) on the other.



What’s in this book:

This trailblazing book puts forward a new tax treaty dispute resolution system based on the LOSC system for resolving multilateral tax disputes, focusing on the following:



mapping of the institutional arrangements that make up the dispute resolution mechanisms to understand how each system works;
comparative analysis of the patterns of interaction and outcomes generated across the two dispute resolution systems to identify relevant aspects of the LOSC system that may be adapted in the ITR to improve tax treaty dispute resolution; and
analysis of the inclusivity levels across the decision-making structures under each system to identify specific consensus-building techniques that may facilitate the implementation of the new proposed tax treaty dispute resolution system and also enhance international cooperation across the ITR.


The suggested restructuring of the tax treaty dispute resolution system expands the existing mutual agreement procedure. It shapes a comprehensive legal framework that aims to achieve a more effective, predictable and equitable resolution of multilateral tax disputes in the 21st-century ITR by finding the right balance between countries’ right to tax sovereignty and the rule of law.



How this will help you:

Just as the design of the dispute resolution system under the LOSC laid the groundwork for universal consensus of the Convention among almost 160 countries, the author’s new tax treaty dispute resolution system also offers a solid foundation for consensus-building towards a universal treaty in the ITR. All those concerned with international tax dispute resolution – whether policymakers, in-house counsel, national tax authority officials, judges, tax lawyers or academics – will find the truly valuable analysis here, not elsewhere.