Bij voorlichting aan burgers ‘vertaalt’ de Belastingdienst complexe belastingwetgeving naar begrijpelijke teksten voor burgers. Deze bijdrage behandelt een aantal praktische en fundamentele vragen die zich voordoen bij deze vertaalslag, zoals: wat is de juridische status van voorlichting? Welke ‘ingrepen’ zijn nodig in de vertaling? Is begrijpelijke taal alleen maar ‘goed’, of zijn er ook nadelen? Kunnen burgers rechten ontlenen aan ‘vertaalde’ belastingwetgeving? En wat betekent dat voor de belastingwetgever? Duidelijk wordt dat begrijpelijke taal nodig is, maar dat het juristen ook voor praktische en fundamentele vraagstukken stelt, waarbij burgers niet uit het oog mogen worden verloren.

Dit artikel is een bewerking van een lezing die de auteur op 11 april 2018 heeft gehouden voor de Academie voor Wetgeving, en waarin hij de achtergronden heeft toegelicht van het besluit van de Hoge Raad om systematischer werk te gaan maken van signalen naar de wetgever.

The international tax system is the result of the interaction of different actors who share the responsibility for its integrity. States and multinational corporations both enjoy to a certain extent freedom of choice with regard to their tax behaviour – which entails moral responsibility. Making, interpreting and using tax rules therefore is inevitably a matter of exercising responsibility. Both should abstain from viewing tax laws as a bunch of technical rules to be used as a tool without any intrinsic moral or legal value. States bear primary responsibility for the integrity of the international tax system. They should become more reticent in their use of tax as regulatory instrument – competing with one another for multinationals’ investment. They should also act more responsibly by cooperating to make better rules to prevent aggressive tax planning, which entails a shift in tax payments from very expert taxpayers to other taxpayers. Here, the distributive justice of the tax system and a level playing field should be guaranteed. Multinationals should abstain from putting pressure on states and lobbying for favourable tax rules that disproportionally affect other taxpayers – SMEs and individual taxpayers alike. Multinationals and their tax advisers should avoid irresponsible conduct by not aiming to pay a minimalist amount of (corporate income) taxes – merely staying within the boundaries of the letter of the law. Especially CSR-corporations should assume the responsibility for the integrity of the tax system.

The aim of this article is to examine the differences in perception of ‘fairness’ between developing and developed countries, which influence developing countries’ willingness to embrace the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) proposals and to recommend as to how to overcome these differences. The article provides an introduction to the background of the OECD’s BEPS initiatives (Action Plan, Low Income Countries Report, Multilateral Framework, Inclusive Framework) and the concerns of developing countries about their ability to implement BEPS (Section 1); a non-exhaustive overview of the shortcomings of the BEPS Project and its Action Plan in respect of developing countries (Section 2); arguments on why developing countries might perceive fairness in relation to corporate income taxes differently from developed countries (Section 3); and recommendations for international organisations, governments and academic researchers on where fairness in respect of developing countries should be more properly addressed (Section 4).

In deze bijdrage wordt een korte samenvatting gegeven van het proefschrift over de civiel- en fiscaalrechtelijke ontwikkeling van de schenking en de gift in Nederland en België, vanaf de Belgische onafhankelijkheid tot begin 2015.

The ‘Willing-Being Able-Daring’ (WBAD) framework for analysing rule compliance is introduced and explained. It models rule transgression as the result of climbing a three step staircase: people first have to form a will to not-comply, then see whether they can find an opportunity to transgress the rule without being caught for certain, and finally have to decide to take the risk, facing the consequences of being caught and issued an informal or formal reaction in terms of social disapproval or juridical prosecution. The WBAD framework proposes to identify which of these steps is (too) low, using expert meetings or surveys. It advocates to ponder on ways to increase the heights of the steps. It is claimed that the approach is simpler and hence more parsimonious than the Table-of-Eleven-approach commonly used in The Netherlands. The approach is illustrated with an example from the realm of tax compliance. The article concludes with sketching a perspective when to apply WBAD.

This article provides an overview of the methodological challenges that scholars are confronted with in relation to use of legislation, case law and literature commentaries within doctrinal legal inquiry. Therefore it employs a systematic literature review and a supplementary explorative expert-consultation among legal scholars of Tilburg University. Although the scope of the research is still limited, it shows that doctrinal legal inquiry is subjected to more and other methodological challenges surrounding the source-usage than one might expect. This insight may contribute to the further development of the meta-discipline ’law and methodology’ and simultaneously allows for more methodological awareness among doctrinal legal scholars.

Het naleven van regelgeving en het toezicht daarop steunen op informatieverwerking. Informatiesystemen worden ingezet voor het verzamelen en beoordelen van bewijs dat men aan de regels voldoet, maar ze worden ook steeds vaker ingezet om gedrag te beïnvloeden. Bedrijfsprocessen en informatiesystemen worden dan zo ontworpen dat men als vanzelf aan de regels voldoet: ‘compliance by design’. In deze bijdrage wordt besproken op welke wijze algemene regelgeving kan worden vertaald in specifieke eisen en definities voor informatiesystemen. Het zet een stappenplan uit voor een juridische procesanalyse en benoemt enkele aandachtspunten die juridische experts kunnen helpen te zorgen dat het resulterende proces effectief is en rechtmatig. Toepassing van het stappenplan wordt geïllustreerd aan de hand van voorbeelden.

There is an ongoing debate about the importance and need for a more scientific and methodological approach of legal research. In this article, we contribute to this discussion by defining several role models and by testing to what extent these role models are used in legal research. After analyzing more than hundred Dutch legal dissertations, the study finds that legal scholars often take the perspective of the legislator who tries to find and define optimal law. The study also finds that classical sources, such as legislation and court decisions, are predominantly used within the perspective of the legislator. The advantages and pitfalls of the role model of the legislator are discussed. The findings are relevant for legal theory, more specifically for the debate on whether legal scholars take an internal or external perspective on the law. Additionally, the article provides information on what legal researchers do and therefore contributes to understanding the characteristics, possibilities, and constraints of legal research.

This paper addresses the principle of legal certainty, which was central in the work of Bob Brouwer. He both regretted and disputed the decline of this principle in the theory and practice of law, trying to defend it against the spirit of the time. I argue that this attempt was in vain, because it opposes recent developments in law, as is illustrated by a notorious case of the European Court of Human Rights. Moreover, these developments invoke a constructivist account of legal certainty, which opposes Brouwer’s legal positivist account. Additionally, this meta-level shows that legal certainty in its classical form is indefensible, which – of course – does not mean that it is senseless altogether. On the contrary, the principle of legal certainty does have meaning in current legal systems, and it is the task of new generations of young scholars to try to get a grip on it. In doing so, they will undoubtedly make use of Brouwer’s work, which excels both in the depth of thinking and the clarity of writing.