scholarly journals Cracking Shells

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Vail
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Tax Havens ◽  
Bilateral Agreements ◽  
Criminal Organizations ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
Tax Haven ◽  
Beneficial Ownership

In early 2016, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released a report detailing thousands of leaked documents demonstrating how a Panamanian law firm had, for years, helped wealthy clients conceal their financial activities through the use of offshore shell companies. The Panama Papers, as the leaked documents came to be known, directed renewed attention at the use of shell companies. Shell companies are used by the world’s wealthy and powerful to lower their taxes, but are also used by tax evaders, criminal organizations, and terrorists. While much of the renewed attention has been directed at offshore tax havens such as Panama, the United States is itself considered a tax haven by many, largely due to states such as Delaware, which has long catered to individuals desiring secrecy. In response to the Panama Papers, numerous international jurisdictions have looked to strengthen their laws governing the creation of shell companies and considered the mechanisms used to facilitate exchanges of information. This Article will examine one of those responses—the European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering Directive—as an example of the changes the United States should apply to its own domestic laws and as an example of the multilateral framework needed to address a global issue. This Article will argue that the United States should follow the European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering Directive’s lead in strengthening its laws regarding the disclosure of beneficial ownership information, creating shared registers of beneficial owners, implementing penalties for noncomplying entities, and moving towards creating multilateral, as opposed to bilateral, agreements to combat the misuse of shell companies.

United States’ Responsibility to Promote Financial Transparency

2019 ◽  
pp. 323-344
Author(s):  
Tracy A. Kaye
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Regulatory Changes ◽  
Tax Haven ◽  
Beneficial Ownership ◽  
Financial Transparency

This chapter discusses the legislative and regulatory changes that are necessary for the United States to fully participate in the global financial transparency movement. This includes the collection of beneficial ownership information for any legal entities formed in the United States. Indeed, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and other international human rights obligations require the United States to increase disclosure of information regarding companies’ beneficial ownership, as a means of combating tax avoidance and evasion. The chapter then highlights the human rights imperatives for the United States to use exchange of information laws to regulate taxpayer conduct. It encourages advocates in the human rights community who are pushing for increased tax transparency to train their sights on the United States as one of the largest and most persistent tax haven jurisdictions hiding in plain view.

scholarly journals The Dimensions of the US-China Trade War

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
Mohamad Zreik
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bilateral Agreements ◽  
China Trade ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Trade War

AbstractThe Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued a statement Friday morning, July 6, 2018, confirming the outbreak of a trade war between the United States and China. The statement came after the United States imposed tariffs on many Chinese goods, in violation of international and bilateral agreements, and the destruction of the concept of free trade which the United States calls for following it. It is a war of opposite directions, especially the contradiction between the new Trump policy and the Chinese approach. The proof is what US Defense Secretary James Matisse announced in Singapore in early June 2018 of “the full strategy of the new United States, in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific,” where China was the “sole enemy of the United States” in China’s geostrategic region. Intentions have become publicized, and trade war between the two economic giants is turning into a reality. This paper will give an overview of the US-China scenario of trade war, then a focused analysis on the Trump’s administration economic decision regarding China, and the consequences of this decision.

scholarly journals The Double Irish and Dutch Sandwich tax strategies: Could a general anti-avoidance rule counteract the problems caused by the utilisation of these structures?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Danielle Thorne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Current System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Tax Havens ◽  
Intangible Resources ◽  
And Control ◽  
Tax Structures

<p>This paper analyses the Double Irish and Dutch Sandwich tax structures used by large multinational enterprises. These structures enable companies to shift significant profits to offshore tax havens through the use of wholly owned subsidiaries in Ireland and the Netherlands. Application of the New Zealand General Anti-Avoidance rule in s BG 1 of the Income Tax Act 2007 reveals that any attempt to counteract these structures would be highly fact dependent. The paper concludes that it would be possible to apply the rule, but that there would be practical difficulties in relation to enforceability of the Commissioner’s ruling. A similar result was reached when applying the United States General Anti-Avoidance rule. The attempted application of the General Anti-Avoidance rules reveals a fundamental flaw in the income tax system. That is, the inability of the current system to regulate and control intangible resources and technology based transactions.</p>

Creating LDF South

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Rosen ◽  
Joseph Mosnier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North Carolina ◽  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
To Come ◽  
Washington University

This chapter describes Chambers's creation of a black-led and racially integrated law firm, for all intents the first such institution in the United States. In 1967, Chambers recruited two junior attorneys to his office: Adam Stein, a white George Washington University Law School graduate who had interned with Chambers in the summer of 1965, and James Ferguson, an African American from Asheville, North Carolina, who had just graduated from Columbia Law School. The three would form the nucleus of a powerful civil rights law practice for years to come. In 1968, after recruiting a young white Legal Aid attorney, James Lanning, Chambers formally created Chambers, Stein, Ferguson & Lanning. In 1969, African American attorney Robert Belton, a North Carolina native who was LDF's leading Title VII litigator, also joined the firm. So highly reputed was Chambers as a civil rights litigator, and so central was his firm to the wider LDF campaign in these years, that the firm was informally acknowledged as "LDF South."

16. Trade Policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 363-387
Author(s):  
Alasdair R. Young
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Trade Policy ◽  
European Integration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bilateral Agreements ◽  
Multilateral Negotiations ◽  
The World ◽  
Integration Project ◽  
The Eu

This chapter introduces the importance of EU trade policy both to the European integration project and to the EU’s role in the world. It explains how different aspects of trade policy are made. The chapter also charts how the emphasis of EU trade policy has shifted from prioritizing multilateral negotiations to pursuing bilateral agreements. It considers how the EU has responded to the apparent politicization of trade policy within Europe and to the United States’ more protectionist and unilateral trade policy. It also considers Brexit EU trade policy and how trade policy complicated Brexit. It argues that there has been considerable continuity in EU trade policy despite these challenges.

16. Human Trafficking

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea M. Bertone
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
White Slavery ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This chapter examines how the international community has defined and framed the issue of human trafficking over the last century, and how governments such as the United States have responded politically to the problem of human trafficking. Contemporary concerns about trafficking can be traced back to a late nineteenth-century movement in the United States and Western Europe against white slavery. White slavery, also known as the white slave trade, refers to the kidnapping and transport of Caucasian girls and women for the purposes of prostitution. The chapter first considers the definitions of human trafficking before discussing the anti-white slavery movement and the increase in international consciousness about the trafficking of women. It then traces the origins of the contemporary anti-human trafficking movement and analyses how trafficking emerged as a global issue in the 1990s. It also presents a case study on human trafficking in the United States.

The United States and the International Criminal Court: Avoiding Jurisdiction Through Bilateral Agreements in Reliance on Article 98

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Bogdan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Legislative History ◽  
Bilateral Agreements ◽  
General Obligation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Treaty Interpretation

AbstractState-parties to the International Criminal Court Statute have a general obligation to cooperate with the Court. The duty to cooperate represents the functional cornerstone of the Court's existence. A narrow exception to this duty is contained in Article 98 of the Statute, which provides for limited circumstances in which the Court must refrain from seeking a surrender of an individual to the Court. Following rules of treaty interpretation, as well as an examination of the legislative history of the ICC Statute, the article explores the scope of Article 98, the provision the United States relied on in concluding a series of bilateral agreements that are primarily aimed at preventing the surrender of any U.S. nationals to the ICC. The article considers the issue of what impact, if any, the agreements have in the context of extradition, and the U.S.' legal ability to fulfill the commitments made in the "Article 98" agreements.

Homelessness

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin-Ling Irene Wong ◽  
Claudia J. Vogelsang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Homeless Persons ◽  
Homeless Population ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
Definition Of

Homelessness is a major social problem in the United States. The article starts with an overview of homelessness in American history, followed by the definition of contemporary homelessness, its prevalence, and the composition and diverse characteristics of the homeless population. Contrasting perspectives on what causes homelessness are discussed, while the multidimensionality of the homeless experience is explored. The unique experiences of three subpopulations, including homeless persons who are involved in criminal justice, emerging youth leaving foster care, and older homeless persons are further featured. Public and community responses to homelessness are examined, highlighting evidence-based and emerging practices that aim at reducing and preventing homelessness. A discussion of international homelessness follows, as homelessness is recognized as a global issue affecting people living in poverty in both the developed and developing world. The article concludes with discussion of the implications for social work.

The Sharing of Radio Frequencies between Canada and the United States: the Case of AM Broadcasting

1982 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 123-160
Author(s):  
Sylvie J. Gravel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Physical Nature ◽  
The United States ◽  
Radio Spectrum ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Bilateral Agreements ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Broadcasting System ◽  
Radio Frequencies

SummaryBecause of the physical nature of the radio spectrum, the sharing of radio frequencies between Canada and the United States is a necessary but delicate process. Using the example of AM broadcasting, the purpose of this article is to give an overview of the bilateral agreements concluded between the two countries during the last sixty years. Multilateral conventions, as well as agreements and arrangements, are also reviewed in order to permit an adequate understanding of the evolution of the bilateral relation. The review of those conventions also indicates the legal principles applicable to the sharing of frequencies for broadcasting purposes.From the initial chaos to “first come, first served” and, finally, to the “a priori” planning of the spectrum, the relative situation of Canada vis-à-vis the United States gradually improves. It is through the negotiation of technical agreements that Canada can obtain access to a natural resource necessary for the expression of its national identity and using a broadcasting system of its own.

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