Georgia

Georgia Professor Assaf Harpaz selected as laureate at the Journal of International Economic Law Junior Faculty Forum

University of Georgia School of Law assistant professor Assaf Harpaz has been selected as a laureate to present his paper titled “Global Tax Wars and the Shift to Source-Based Taxation” at the Journal of International Economic Law Junior Faculty Forum (JIEL JFF).

Below is an abstract of the paper:

Current debates in international taxation often focus on how to fairly allocate taxing rights between jurisdictions. When an enterprise earns income abroad, both the country of residence (where the taxpayer resides) and the country of source (where income is generated) have legitimate, competing claims to tax that income. The issue is further complicated in a digital economy where tax avoidance and profit shifting practices are abundant.

Income tax treaties have traditionally favored residence-based taxation. Now, the international tax framework is at a crossroads with intergovernmental organizations battling to redefine the principles of cross-border taxation. The regime has been dominated by the Global North through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which has drawn backlash due to its undemocratic procedure and unfavorable outcomes for developing countries. The United Nations has held a relatively peripheral role in global tax governance, yet this could change with an upcoming UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation – an initiative overwhelmingly supported by developing countries. This article conceptualizes the international tax discourse as “tax wars,” contrasting the taxing powers and interests of the OECD-led Global North with those of the UN-backed Global South. It highlights the distributive effects of tax treaties and argues for a shift toward source-based taxation. To do so, it proposes revisiting the permanent establishment standard in model treaty language, creating an opportunity for broader taxation of business profits in the source country. This transition will address longstanding disparities and is increasingly warranted in a digital economy that does not rely on physical presence

Assaf Harpaz joined University of Georgia School of Law as an assistant professor in summer 2024 and will teach classes in federal income tax and business taxation. Harpaz’s scholarly focus lies in international taxation, with an emphasis on the intersection of taxation and digitalization. He explores the tax challenges of the digital economy and the ways to adapt 20th-century tax laws to modern business practices.

Georgia Law LL.M. student Michael Faleye receives scholarship from Education African Scholars Global Connect

University of Georgia School of Law Master of Laws (LL.M.) student Michael Faleye was selected as a recipient of the Personal Travel Allowance Scholarship from Education African Scholars Global Connect. This organization is dedicated to supporting African students pursuing higher education abroad and to impact their home and host communities. They provide resources and support to help students secure admission and scholarships, and they encourage students to use their education and skills to contribute to the development and nation-building efforts of their home countries.

Below is Education African Scholars Global Connect’s vision statement:

Our vision is to become the leading resource for African youths seeking higher education abroad and to inspire a new generation of leaders and change-makers in Africa. We believe that investing in the education and development of African youths is the key to a brighter future for the continent, and we are dedicated to helping students achieve their full potential and make a lasting impact on their communities and nations.

Michael, who is from Nigeria, earned his law degree with honors at the University of Lagos and completed his legal training at the Nigerian Law School. As a student, he was actively involved in student parliamentary politics as senate president of the Law Students Society. After being called to the Nigerian bar in 2019, he began his legal career in Lagos at Wole Olanipekun & Co., a leading litigation law firm, and then practiced at Fides and Fiducia LP, a full-service law firm, from which he was placed on secondment to Eroton Exploration and Production Company Ltd/Midwestern Oil & Gas Company Ltd. In 2022, he transitioned to an in-house position with one of Africa’s premier financial institutions, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc. Michael’s expertise encompasses commercial law, corporate governance and regulatory compliance. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) and holds certifications in EU privacy law (GDPR) compliance and Intellectual Property “Copyright X” from Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center. His goal is to work in the areas of business law that revolve around mergers & acquisitions, venture capital, and privacy law.

The Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree at the University of Georgia School of Law offers foreign law graduates opportunities to learn about the U.S. legal system, deepen knowledge of an area of specialization, and explore new legal interests at one of the nation’s top law schools. The ten-month program provides individualized support through the Dean Rusk International Law Center and prepares international students for a globalized legal market. Applications are open now for the class of 2026. More information about applying to the program can be found here.

Georgia Professor Christopher Bruner publishes in the Journal of Law and Political Economy

University of Georgia School of Law professor Christopher M. Bruner published an article titled “National Identity and Economic Development in Market-Dominant Small Jurisdictions” in UC Berkeley’s peer-reviewed Journal of Law and Political Economy.

A working paper version of the article was previously presented at the symposium on “Law, Identity, and Economic Development in the Post-Colonial Era: The Case of the Northern Atlantic and Larger Caribbean Regions,” hosted by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. For more information, please see our previous post.

Below is an abstract of the article:

Small jurisdictions that are globally competitive in providing cross-border financial services—market-dominant small jurisdictions (MDSJs)—occupy fascinating and unique positions in global markets, reflecting the complexity of their linkages with major economies. This article explores how the distinctive features of MDSJs highlight important dimensions of the relationship between national identity and economic development. I review literatures that aim to explain how jurisdictions behave in the economic context, focusing on concepts of nationalism, national identity, and nation branding, and how such phenomena might impact one another. I then assess their application to the relationship between national identity and economic development in MDSJs, where realities of size and geography prompt substantial outward orientation and incentivize innovations in law and finance to service economic activity largely occurring elsewhere. The article culminates with a vivid case study—the role of national identity in developing, marketing, and maintaining Bermuda’s outsized role in global insurance markets.

Christopher M. Bruner is the Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law at the University of Georgia School of Law and serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center.

Georgia Law Professor Amann a Research Visitor at Oxford’s Bonavero Institute of Human Rights

Georgia Law Professor Diane Marie Amann is in the United Kingdom during this Fall 2024 semester, serving as a Research Visitor at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Oxford University Faculty of Law.

The faculty sponsor for Amann’s visit is Professor Dapo Akande. Oxford’s Chichele Professor of Public International Law and a member of the U.N. International Law Commission, he has just been nominated as the UK candidate for election to the International Court of Justice.

Amann, who is Regents’ Professor, Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center here at the University of Georgia School of Law, held the same Oxford post during another research-intensive semester, Spring 2018.

She plans to pursue her scholarship related to women professionals who played roles in international criminal trials after World War II and also her work on child rights, especially as they relate to armed conflict and similar violence.

As a Research Visitor, she also will have the opportunity to take part in Bonavero Institute activities, and will benefit from Oxford’s libraries, seminars and lectures, and other offerings.

The Bonavero Institute was founded in 2016 as a unit of the Oxford Faculty of Law, under the direction of Professor Kate O’Regan, a former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Georgia Professor Desirée LeClercq to present at WTO’s Annual Public Forum in Switzerland

Assistant Professor Desirée LeClercq will present at the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 2024 Public Forum. The theme for this year’s forum is Re-globalization: Better Trade for a Better World, described below:

Since the WTO’s inception in 1995, global trade has rapidly expanded and become increasingly interconnected. The international trading system has helped lift 1.5 billion people out of absolute poverty and unlocked new opportunities for businesses, workers and consumers. At the same time, the gains from trade have not always been shared equally. This needs to change.

As the WTO celebrates its 30th anniversary, the 2024 Public Forum will look to the future, exploring how re-globalization can help make trade more inclusive and ensuring that its benefits reach more people.

LeClercq will present research under the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement’s dispute settlement provisions and their effects on vulnerable workers in Mexico.

The WTO 2024 Public Forum also discussed the TradeExperettes’ report: Ten “Quick Wins” for Re-globalization and Resilience in Trade. LeClercq authored “Quick Win No. 3: Empower all workers to ensure a fair, equitable and sustainable trade policy,” which urges greater inclusion of non-union workers at the trade bargaining table.

Desirée LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law as an assistant professor in summer 2024 and currently teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law, and U.S. Labor Law. LeClercq’s scholarly focus lies in international and labor law. She also serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law.

Georgia Law Professor Kannan Rajarathinam (LL.M. ’88) publishes book

University of Georgia School of Law alumnus and adjunct professor Kannan Rajarathinam (LL.M. ’88) recently published a book, The DMK Years: Ascent, Descent, Survival (India Viking, 2024). The ‘DMK Years’ tells the story of how India’s democracy has accommodated the cultural nationalist aspirations of the Tamils. It also tells the seventy-five-year story of the DMK and the state of Tamil Nadu, once separatist but now India’s second-most prosperous state.      

Below is a full description of the book:

India has twenty states and eight union (federal territories). In April 2023, it became the world’s most populated country. It has 22 official languages, numerous ethnicities and people of all faiths.  

Uniting a country as vast and diverse as India is a herculean task. However, India’s democracy, which was adopted after the 1947 Partition, has shown remarkable resilience. The country’s quasi-federal constitution was designed with unity in mind, recognizing and valuing the diverse population as a key component of its unity.

Yet, India’s unity has not been without its challenges. The restive border states of Kashmir and Punjab are well known. However, there have been other less well-known challenges to the Indian Union. One such was from Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state where the sub-nationalist Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) or Dravidian Progressive Federation espoused separation since its founding in 1949.

As the DMK grew into a significant political force, the Indian Centre brought forward the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1962, banning any secessionist advocacy—even by peaceful means. The DMK dropped its demand and, in five years, became the ruling party in the state of Tamil Nadu. Since then, it has alternated in power there with its breakaway party, the All India Anna DMK, and has been part of the federal coalition for eighteen years.

The ‘DMK Years’ tells the story of how India’s democracy has accommodated the cultural nationalist aspirations of the Tamils. It also tells the seventy-five-year story of the DMK and the state of Tamil Nadu, once separatist but now India’s second-most prosperous state.      

Kannan Rajarathinam is an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia School of Law teaching a course on International Organizations. Between 1993 and 2022, he served the United Nations in various capacities, including senior political affairs officer, head of office, senior planning and coordination officer, chief civil affairs officer, and legal officer from Afghanistan to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before joining the UN, he briefly taught at the University of Madras in India as a guest faculty member and junior professor and practised law. Presently, he serves on the Dean Rusk International Law Center Advisory Council.

Georgia Professor Greg Day presents at ASCOLA’s Annual Conference in Germany

University of Georgia Associate Professor of Legal Studies Greg Day recently presented research at the 19th American Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA) Annual Conference in Würzburg, Germany. The conference brings together about 120 scholars doing research in competition law, economics or policy from all over the world. 

Greg Day is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies at the Terry College of Business and holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Law. He is also an Affiliated Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project as well as the University of North Carolina’s Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life. His research has primarily focused on the intersection of competition, technology, innovation, and privacy as well as the disparate impact of anticompetitive conduct.

Georgia Law welcomes four new professors, including two international law scholars

The University of Georgia School of Law is pleased to welcome four new professors this fall: Pamela Foohey, Assaf Harpaz, Desirée LeClercq, and Meighan Parker. Of the four, LeClercq and Harpaz are international law scholars who will contribute to Georgia Law’s ongoing tradition of excellence in international law that dates to 1940.

Desirée LeClercq, Assistant Professor of Law & Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center

LeClercq teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law and U.S. Labor Law. She serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law. Specializing in international and labor law, LeClercq has recently published extensively in flagship and specialty law reviews, including the Fordham Law Review, the Virginia Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, the Administrative Law Review, the American University Law Review and the Berkeley Journal of International Law. Notably, her Columbia Journal of Transnational Law article titled “A Worker-Centered Trade Policy” won the ComplianceNet Outstanding Junior Publication Award. LeClercq has also contributed several book chapters on international trade and labor, and she is a frequent contributor to Fortune.

Previously she served as a director of labor affairs in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from 2016 to 2020, during which time she was an adjunct professor at the American University Washington College of Law. Additionally, LeClercq worked for nearly a decade as a legal officer at the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and served as staff counsel for the chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.

Assaf Harpaz, Assistant Professor of Law

Harpaz’s scholarly focus lies in international taxation, with an emphasis on the intersection of taxation and digitalization. He teaches classes in federal income tax and business taxation. He explores the tax challenges of the digital economy and the ways to adapt 20th-century tax laws to modern business practices. In addition, he researches the use of tax expenditures and the historical expansion and politicization of the tax expenditure budget in the U.S. federal income tax system.

His recent scholarship includes his international tax article published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law titled “International Tax Reform: Who Gets a Seat at the Table?” His work has also been published in Law and Contemporary Problems, the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Yale Journal of International Law and Tax Notes International. Moreover, he has contributed expert pieces for Newsweek, WalletHub, FinanceBuzz and the Maurer Global Forum.

Before joining UGA, Harpaz served as a visiting assistant professor at the Drexel University Kline School of Law teaching courses in federal income tax and enterprise tax.

Georgia Law Professor Assaf Harpaz presents at International Roundtable on Taxation and Tax Policy

University of Georgia School of Law professor Assaf Harpaz presented his draft paper “Global Tax Wars and the Shift to Source-Based Taxation” and chaired the “Jurisprudence and Enforcement” panel at the 8th International Roundtable On Taxation And Tax Policy during July.

Below is an abstract from the draft paper:

Current debates in international taxation frequently engage with the concept of global tax fairness, relating to the equitable allocation of taxing rights between jurisdictions. These questions emerge within an international tax framework at a critical juncture. In a rapidly evolving digital economy, intergovernmental organizations are battling to shape the cross-border tax agenda. Global North economies have dominated this regime through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which has drawn backlash due to its undemocratic procedure and unfavorable outcomes for developing countries. Meanwhile, the United Nations has occupied a relatively peripheral role in global tax governance. However, its role could change with the establishment of a new Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation – an initiative overwhelmingly supported by the world’s developing countries.

The article conceptualizes the contemporary international tax discourse as “tax wars,” contrasting the taxing powers and interests of the OECD-led Global North with those of the UN-backed Global South. It explores the standards and preferences that have underpinned the regime since its inception, focusing on residence and source taxation. The article argues for a shift towards source-based taxation, drawing on procedural and distributive justice principles. To do so, the article proposes expanding the permanent establishment standard in model treaty language, creating an opportunity for broader taxation of business profits in the source country. This transition will address longstanding disparities and is increasingly warranted in a digital economy that does not rely on physical presence.

Assaf Harpaz joined University of Georgia School of Law as an assistant professor in summer 2024 and will teach classes in federal income tax and business taxation. Harpaz’s scholarly focus lies in international taxation, with an emphasis on the intersection of taxation and digitalization. He explores the tax challenges of the digital economy and the ways to adapt 20th-century tax laws to modern business practices.

Georgia Professor Greg Day publishes in the Cornell Law Review

Greg Day, Associate Professor of Legal Studies at the Terry College of Business and professor (by courtesy) at the University of Georgia School of Law, published “Antitrust for Immigrants” in the Cornell Law Review.

Below is an abstract from the draft paper:

Immigrants and undocumented people have often encountered discrimination because they compete against “native” businesses and workers, resulting in protests, boycotts, and even violence intended to exclude immigrants from markets. Key to this story is government’s ability to discriminate as well: it is indeed common for state and federal actors to enact protectionist laws and regulations meant to prevent immigrants from braiding hair, manicuring nails, operating food trucks, or otherwise competing. But antitrust courts have seldom mentioned a person’s immigration status, much less offered a remedy.

This Article shows that antitrust’s “consumer welfare” standard has curiously ignored the plight of immigrants. Part of the reason is that antitrust law is characterized as a “colorblind” regime benefitting consumers collectively, meaning that it isn’t supposed to prioritize insular groups such as immigrants. Courts and scholars have also described matters of inequality and discrimination as “social harms” existing beyond antitrust’s scope. In fact, antitrust lawsuits have successfully sought to drive immigrants out of markets, alleging that competitors gained an “unfair” advantage from employing undocumented workers. Under this view of antitrust law, the exclusion of immigrants is an appropriate way of promoting competition.

This Article argues that anti-immigrant discrimination creates the exact types of harms that antitrust was meant to remedy. Since excluding immigrants can misallocate resources on citizenship or racial lines as opposed to their most productive usages, certain acts of discrimination should entail “conduct without a legitimate business purpose,” even when based solely on racial animus. A hidden type of market power is revealed in that foreign-born people are less able to employ self-help remedies to correct market failures. In addition to analyzing antitrust’s purpose and economic foundation, this Article delves into antitrust’s history to show that an original function of competition law was to protect foreigners. By demonstrating how incumbents can inflict greater levels of harm on immigrants while wielding less market power, this Article reimagines the consumer welfare standard and its colorblind approach as well as reveals how marginalized communities defy antitrust’s assumptions of self-help remedies.

Greg Day is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies at the Terry College of Business and holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Law. He is also an Affiliated Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project as well as the University of North Carolina’s Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life. His research has primarily focused on the intersection of competition, technology, innovation, and privacy as well as the disparate impact of anticompetitive conduct.