INCREASING COMPETENCE ISSUES

The raison d’être of this book lies at the crossroads of three overarching international evolutions in particular. These are: intensifying globalization and digitalization, movements towards more regional autonomy within federations, and calls for an overall increase in democratic legitimacy. This is particularly also the case in matters of international taxation, which is the exemplative subject of choice in several parts of this book.

Globalization has increased international mobility and has changed the role and importance of international law in general, and treaties in particular. Whereas the treaties of yore concerned war, peace and territory, binding the Head of State as a personification of the state, contemporary treaties touch upon almost every imaginable subject and directly impact people's daily lives. With regard to the exemplative subject of taxation, globalization has led to an exponential increase in potential double taxation, whereby a person, object or event is submitted to tax in more than one state. This has led to a global treaty network that keeps on growing, but that also provides loopholes for double non-taxation. Digitalization is an added difficulty for contemporary international taxation, the current rules of which were designed for a brick-and-mortar economy. The new kinds of trade and economy impose a search for new and more adequate international standards. Similar observations may be made in other areas of law.

Another development is the increased attention and cry for regional autonomy within many federations. We see this e.g. with the Scots and Northern Irish people in the UK, Basque and Catalan Provinces in Spain, the Belgian Regions and Communities, and with Quebec in Canada. Self-determination and national / regional ‘identity’ have been high on political agendas in recent years.

This trend is also noticeable within the European Union (‘EU’), where in many member states so-called ‘nationalists’ rose to power over the last decade. Their common agenda can be summarized as: ‘less EU, more national/regional sovereignty’.

The EU is, however, an even better example regarding the third reason why this book is relevant; i.e. the renewed attention for ‘democratic legitimacy’ and the EU's ‘democratic deficit’.