Tax, inequality, and human rights edited by Philip Alston and Nikki Reisch

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Taxation and human rights : mapping the landscape / Nikki Reisch -- Taxing for the realization of economic, social, and cultural rights / Olivier De Schutter -- Taxation as a human rights issue : gender and substantive equality / Sandra Fredman -- Tax and human rights : the moral valence of entitlements to tax, sovereignty, and collectives / Mitchell A. Kane -- The search for human rights in tax / Allison Christians -- Procuring profit shifting : the state role in tax avoidance / Alex Cobham -- A strange alchemy : embedding human rights in tax policy spillover assessments / Niko Lusiani and Mary Cosgrove -- Tax abuse and implications for human rights in Africa / Annet Wanyana Oguttu and Monica Iyer -- Some aspects of the architecture of international tax reform (and their human rights-related consequences) / Michael Lennard -- Transparency, tax, and human rights / Miranda Stewart -- Taxation and human rights : a delicate balance / Reuven S. Avi-Yonah and Gianluca Mazzoni -- Corporate tax privacy and human rights / Joshua D. Blank -- How countries should share tax information / Arthur J. Cockfield -- United States' responsibility to promote financial transparency / Tracy A. Kaye -- Interrogating the relationship between "legally defensible" tax planning and social justice / Daniel Shaviro -- Who's to blame for the money drain? Corporate power and corruption as competing narratives for lost resources / Matti Ylonen -- Creating a human rights framework for mapping and addressing corporate tax abuses / Matti Kohonen, Radhika Sarin, Troels Boerrild, and Ewan Livingston -- ECHR litigation as a tool for tax justice in Europe / Céline Braumann -- "Taxing for growth" v. "Taxing for equality"--Using human rights to combat gender inequalities, poverty, and income inequalities in fiscal laws / Kathleen A. Lahey -- Human rights and the taxation of menstrual hygiene products in an unequal world / Bridget J. Crawford and Carla Spivack -- Recent cases of regressive and racially disparate taxation in the United States / Andre L. Smith -- Labor, capital, and human rights / Beverly Moran -- Inequality, taxation, and public transfers in Latin America / Michael Hanni and Ricardo Martner -- Basic income as a human right? / Daniel J. Hemel -- Taxation, human rights, and a universal basic income / Philip Alston.

In Tax, Inequality, and Human Rights, experts in human rights law and in tax law debate the linkages between the two fields and highlight how each can help to tackle rapidly growing inequality in the economic, social, and political realms. Against a backdrop of systemic corporate tax avoidance, widespread use of tax havens, persistent pressures to embrace austerity policies, and growing gaps between the rich and poor, this book encourages readers to understand fiscal policy as human rights policy, and thus as having profound consequences for the well-being of citizens around the world. Prominent scholars and practitioners examine how the foundational principles of tax law and human rights law intersect and diverge; discuss the cross-border nature and human rights impacts of abusive practices like tax avoidance and evasion; question the reluctance of states to bring transparency and accountability to tax policies and practices; highlight the responsibility of private sector actors for shaping and misshaping tax laws; and critically evaluate domestic tax rules through the lens of equality and nondiscrimination. The contributing authors also explore how international human rights obligations should influence the framework for both domestic and international tax reforms. They address what human rights law requires of state tax policies and how tax laws and loopholes affect the enjoyment of human rights by people outside a state's borders. Because tax and human rights both turn on the relationship between the individual and the state, neo-liberalism's erosion of the social contract threatens to undermine them both.