Center for Taxation and Public Governance
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| Legal Drafting Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Geerten M.M. Michielse 2008-2009: March 2, 2009 - April 3, 2009 |
Course content
Legal drafting is the crucial activity that gives tax policy decisions the legal basis for their
implementation. The effectiveness of a tax law is enhanced if its words are meaningful, intelligible, well
thought out, and well organized. Poor drafting often leads to substantial problems in implementation of
a new tax law that could have been avoided.
In this course participants learn the basic tools in drafting tax legislation. During the theoretical
introduction an overview is given of the principles of designing tax legislation: structure of the statute,
comparative examples, problems encountered, legal environment, and the translation of tax policy
concepts into legal text.
The participants start with an introduction to the various legal families that can be distinguished
worldwide and their impact on tax legislation. This is followed by a discussion on the underlying
principles of taxation, e.g. equality, proportionality, and non-retroactivity. The framework of tax
legislation is formed by the constitution, principles of law, other domestic legislation (e.g. commercial
law, penal law, labor law, etc.), and international treaties.
Another important issue is addressed as participants are told about the methods used to interpret tax
legislation. Several international well-known speakers will introduce this topic in perspective of their
legal systems. In a common law environment the interpretation has a different approach as it has in a
continental European situation.
The theoretical part finishes with the explanation of the process of tax reforms: executive versus
legislative powers within governments are explained, and central versus local government levies are
discussed.
In the second part of this course, practical experience is gained through workshops given by
experienced legal drafters. In this part, participants are working on a case study in which they have to
translate tax policy concepts into legal text. In discussing their solutions, participants will get on-hand
guidance in practical suggestions to improve the drafting process: brevity, transparency, avoidance of
logistic language, section headings, structuring of sentences, etcetera.
Legal drafting is the crucial activity that gives tax policy decisions the legal basis for their
implementation. The effectiveness of a tax law is enhanced if its words are meaningful, intelligible, well
thought out, and well organized. Poor drafting often leads to substantial problems in implementation of
a new tax law that could have been avoided.
In this course participants learn the basic tools in drafting tax legislation. During the theoretical
introduction an overview is given of the principles of designing tax legislation: structure of the statute,
comparative examples, problems encountered, legal environment, and the translation of tax policy
concepts into legal text.
The participants start with an introduction to the various legal families that can be distinguished
worldwide and their impact on tax legislation. This is followed by a discussion on the underlying
principles of taxation, e.g. equality, proportionality, and non-retroactivity. The framework of tax
legislation is formed by the constitution, principles of law, other domestic legislation (e.g. commercial
law, penal law, labor law, etc.), and international treaties.
Another important issue is addressed as participants are told about the methods used to interpret tax
legislation. Several international well-known speakers will introduce this topic in perspective of their
legal systems. In a common law environment the interpretation has a different approach as it has in a
continental European situation.
The theoretical part finishes with the explanation of the process of tax reforms: executive versus
legislative powers within governments are explained, and central versus local government levies are
discussed.
In the second part of this course, practical experience is gained through workshops given by
experienced legal drafters. In this part, participants are working on a case study in which they have to
translate tax policy concepts into legal text. In discussing their solutions, participants will get on-hand
guidance in practical suggestions to improve the drafting process: brevity, transparency, avoidance of
logistic language, section headings, structuring of sentences, etcetera.
