CIAO DATE: 04/06

¿Integración por la puerta trasera? La incursión del Tribunal de Justicia de las Comunidades Europeas en materia tributaria

Abstract

To what extent do member states control the process of European integration? This question has traditionally confronted Intergovernmentalists with Neo-functionalists and Institutionalists of various sorts. This paper provides evidence that supports the second school of thought and refines its theoretical claims with a case study: the European Court of Justice’s jurisprudence on direct taxation. This is a ‘hard case’, because in this sector, the member states’ resistance to the expansion of Community competence has been particularly virulent. It will be shown how, inspite of this, the Court’s jurisprudence has ventured in the field of taxation to the point of undermining the principle upon which rest all national fiscal systems (the distinction between residents and non-residents), putting under severe strain the coherence of national tributary systems. The Court’s jurisprudence have also had effects on issues pertaining exclusively to national taxation, through the principle of ‘inverted non-discrimination’.

Full Text (PDF, 41 pages, 331 KB)