TAX LAW FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The Centre for Finance and Development (CFD) welcomes Dr Alice Pirlot, Assistant Professor in International Law, as a new Faculty Associate.

Having previously worked as a researcher at the University of Oxford and University of Louvain, she looks forward to benefiting from the interdisciplinarity of the Geneva Graduate Institute and her CFD colleagues.

Interview

What is the focus of some of your most recent work?

I work with tax from a legal perspective and its interactions with environmental and trade law. In this respect, I have also come to work on how taxes can be used to finance and leverage action on the SDGs – either directly or indirectly.

Most recently, I have been looking at how countries design new types of carbon pricing mechanisms in order to, as they argue, ‘level the playing field’ by creating a fair competitiveness framework for domestic and foreign corporations. An example of such measures is the EU’s recent proposal to introduce carbon border adjustments. My research analyzes the policy and legal discourse surrounding the adoption of such measures and asks whether they are consistent with international climate change law.

What has been your path towards researching these topics within tax law?

I have always believed that tax measures can be used to change behaviors. That explains my interests in carbon taxation. Moreover, I have always been interested in the cross-border effects of tax policies and carbon border tax adjustments as a prime example of a tax instrument with a cross-border impact. What I find fascinating about these topics is that they illustrate that tax is no longer entirely a domestic matter, even if it is still largely viewed as such. Tax has become internationalized. That’s true for carbon taxation, but it is also true for other topics, such as the taxation of multinational companies. 

Why is the interaction of tax, environment, trade, and the SDGs significant to you?

I strongly believe that tax is one of the essential tools a State has to have an impact on its people. It isn’t just about raising revenue – the way you design your tax system will necessarily influence the way people live and interact with the State, for example through VAT when people consume goods and services, the personal income tax or through other taxes.

Thus, tax measures can be used to achieve some of the SDGs, such as climate mitigation but also reducing poverty and achieving gender equality.  Unfortunately, in many countries, tax systems do not yet fully support the achievement of the SDGs and, in some cases, even work against them. For example, tax systems can contribute to gender inequality by discouraging women to work.

Given that you are now a Faculty Associate at the Centre for Finance and Development (CFD), what ideas and projects might you pursue next?

I look forward to tapping into the interdisciplinarity of CFD – it’s what makes doing research at the Geneva Graduate Institute so beautiful. Specifically, I hope to design and teach a course on taxation and sustainability alongside a colleague from CFD from another discipline.