LATIN-AMERICAN COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL TAX LAW: A COPERNICAN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Shortly after brief data regarding the notion of Comparative Law, its history, and its functions, this article focuses on Latin-American constitutions, to carry out a study of Constitutional Tax Law, by comparing some of the most relevant principles of Latin-American constitutional tax systems, in an authentic microcomparison effort. In terms of the principles that make the value and the principle of Legal Security, it investigates the principles of Legality (Generic and Tax), of Non-retroactivity (Generic and Tax) and of Tax Anteriority. In terms of the principles that make the value of Justice, it analyzes the principles of Equality (Generic and Tax), of Contributive Capacity, of Existential Minimum and of Prohibition to Confiscation. Finally, it carries out a comparative synthesis, to extract the appropriate conclusions from the comparisons, drawing a broad and comprehensive panorama, by a perspective that calls “Copernican”, of Latin-American Comparative Constitutional Tax Law.