International Tax and Investment Law

• In Event: New Patterns in Foreign Direct Investment

Abstract

The global tax and investment regimes are two of the most important bodies of law in international relations. Each is composed of thousands of bilateral treaties, which aim to resolve fundamental cooperation problems between sovereign nations and firms. In this paper, we use computer-assisted text analysis to establish a novel stylized fact: Despite their similar network structures, the tax and investment regimes have followed markedly different paths over the past decades, with a high degree of normative/legal convergence in the tax field, but considerable divergence in international investment law. We argue that the different cooperation problems that characterize international taxation and investment protection explain why different communities of practice emerged in the two fields, and why different cooperation mechanisms were adopted. We support this argument by drawing on historical evidence and further text analysis.

Authors

• Wolfgang Alschner, University of Ottawa

• Vincent Arel-Bundock, Universite de Montreal