Presenter: Professor Brian Arnold (University of Western Ontario)

Venue: The University of Auckland Business School, Room OGGB5, Level 0, Owen G Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland 
    
Abstract:
The seminar will explore the “myth” and “reality” in the interpretation of tax treaties – namely:

• the myth that tax treaties are interpreted differently (more broadly and liberally) than domestic tax statutes; and
• the reality that interpretation is a fundamental, intuitive human activity that cannot be reduced to rules.

The seminar will critique and comment upon the nature of language in general, and in particular the interpretive provisions in the Vienna Convention and the characteristic differences between international tax treaties and domestic tax statutes that might justify different interpretive approaches.

Bio:
Professor Brian Arnold, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Western Ontario, has taught at various Canadian law schools for close to three decades.  He is a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School and teaches international tax courses at the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney, and at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.

As a tax consultant to Goodmans LLP, Toronto, Professor Arnold has been involved in several high-profile tax cases.  He has also acted as an advisor to several governments, including Australia and New Zealand.  Professor Arnold has often spoken at Canadian Tax Foundation conferences and at the Congress of the International Fiscal Association (IFA). He has contributed a number of articles to international journals such as the British Tax Review, the Australian Tax Forum, the International Tax Bulletin and Tax Notes International. Professor Arnold’s books include The Taxation of Controlled Foreign Corporations: An International Comparison and The International Tax Primer.

For more information please contact:
P M Vasudev
Department of Commercial Law
Phone: +64 9 923 3483
Email: p.vasudev@auckland.ac.nz