In recent years, the international tax planning strategies of multinationals have become a source of – often heated – debate. This course describes the rules and principles that together form the manner in which countries assert and limit their jurisdiction to tax cross-border flows of income and capital gains. Governments, who have traditionally been very protective of their right to tax whatever amounts they think fit, are increasingly seeing the practical need to cooperate with each other. This ensures that they continue to have solid international relations; their economies benefit from overseas investment; and they continue to collect what is considered to be a ‘fair amount of tax’. This change in approach has been evidenced by, inter alia, initiatives that began with providing relief from double taxation. These initiatives have since moved on to exchanging taxpayer information with revenue authorities of other jurisdictions, and even to the point where governments acknowledge a need to assist other revenue authorities by collecting tax revenue on their behalf. The teaching of this course has a sensibility towards practice but its aim is to bring both practical knowledge and the best scholarship to bear in the class-room. Despite its great interest to the world of international practice, the subject offers a rich and intellectually stimulating area of concentration for any international lawyer, international economic lawyer, transnational lawyer and international disputes lawyer. There is a complex interplay of contractual, regulatory and treaty issues typical of modern transnational lawyering.

Various teaching modes will be employed and combined during the course. These range from a straightforward lecture format (where the course teacher fill gaps in the reading, provides an overview or summarises a complex point) to more active seminar-style discussion, interactive dialogue and semi-Socratic teaching. The focus will be on practical, procedural and tactical tax issues that arise in contractual, treaty-based and other forms of tax-related arbitration.

This course is aligned with the following programme learning outcomes:

• To develop a deep and achieving learning approach that is rich in critical thought and in applied knowledge to the study of international taxation and economic law, practice, and policy through its norms, processes, and institutions.

• To relate the processes of economic and legal globalization to the trans-national business and regulatory experience and political, social, cultural, and systematical conditions of China and the rest of East Asia, with Hong Kong as a regional centre for finance and trade.

• To optimize the legal professional skills necessary for international commercial practice, including creative principles-problem-solving techniques; original, significant, and rigorous legal research; and plain and reasoned expression of legal terms.  

To instill a commitment to personal and professional self-development, ethical conduct, and social responsibility that is appropriate and adapted to international economic activities and relations.