International Tax Justice

Abstract

In Political Philosophy, international justice is a relevant topic, but there is no consensus on whether it should be essentially pursued as state justice or whether there are alternatives. This article focuses on international tax justice. For that purpose, the following topics are debated: the role of state law in a globalized world; justice as a normative vs. an empiric concept; the scope of justice: whether we should focus on international, political or state justice; whether international justice should be applied by states or international institutions; the meaning of justice for the theories of recognition; tax competition as an aggression to recognition among states; interstate cooperation as an alternative paradigma to tax competition.
We aim to demonstrate that the idea that every human being must set up and support a state in the Hobbesian and Kant’s logic, becomes artificial or insufficent in a free movement context.
We conclude that international cooperation among states is the best solution to achieve justice and validity of law, as long as recognition, the ability-to-pay principle and the single tax principle are observed.