The event intends to analyze the impact of corporate taxation on the EU-US relations in the light of global competition. In particular, the focus is on the EU reaction to Trump’s taxation and commercial strategy and on global competition in the digitalized economy. The seminar will also discuss the technical implications of the US tax reform and the current EU law developments (including anti-avoidance, state aids and bilateral investment treaties), including those occurring at the level of EU Member States.

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Read more about Harvard Worldwide Week: The EU-US Battle for Global Markets: Reflections Facing Trump’s Taxation and Commercial Strategy

The protracted Brexit negotiations have shown the current gap between two paradigms of international economic cooperation. Internally, and with a small group of neighbors, the EU operates a market integration system, which has developed over several decades. It is a system which has become ever more sophisticated, and has moved further away from more traditional forms of international trade liberalization. UK attempts to argue for an intermediate form of cooperation/integration have fallen on deaf ears. This talk will show that there are important legal, institutional and political...

Read more about Brexit: Mind the Gap between Market Integration and Trade Liberalization

During the Eurozone debt crisis, the voice of Spain was missing in European affairs. The focus was on internal reforms. Over the past years, however, Spain is growing above average rates and the new socialist Government of Pedro Sánchez is keen to have a more proactive role in European debates. The European Commission welcomes this. When it comes to reforming the Eurozone, the media and intellectual discussion is too much centered on the possible Franco-German compromises, the blocking capacity of the so-called Hanseatic League led by The Netherlands, and the disrupting potential of the...

Read more about Eurozone Reform, a Spanish Perspective

The RCC and Harvard Spain are proud to announce a special event for RCC Fellows and Harvard Spain students. Please join us for an off-the-record conversation with Joaquín Almunia about current issues and the political situation in Spain, Europe and the World. 

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Read more about How to Win the Future: Joaquín Almunia

The Court of Justice of the European Union issued its much-anticipated decisions on two requests for preliminary rulings concerning whether the prohibition on wearing headscarves at the workplace constitutes discrimination (C-188/15 Asma Bougnaoui, ADDH v. Micropole SA and C-157/15 Achbita v. G4S Secure Solutions NV). The decisions are trying to set out refined criteria, which would define the permissibility of limiting employees’ headscarves at work. In both cases the court held that limitations on employees’ religious headscarves can be acceptable if they are based on an internal...

Read more about The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Headscarves in the Workplace: A Commentary

The emergent Indignados movement in Spain is transforming Spanish politics and society, heralding an end to the Transition since Franco, and responding to multiple legitimation crises in Spain and in Europe. This movement is rooted in the Stop Evictions campaign led by Ada Colau in Barcelona following the bursting of the subprime mortgage bubble in the wake of the 2008; as well as the 15-M Movement arising in May 2011 Puerta del Sol of Madrid, symbolizing the Indignez-Vous outrage of a lost...

Read more about Los Indignados: Tides of Social Insertion in Spain

The Harvard European Law Association (HELA) is excited to announce its 2018 Symposium, taking place on Friday April 6, 2018, entitled “Europe and the US: Isolationism First?”

Throughout the past decades, Europe and the US have enjoyed relative welfare from an economic, social, and cultural perspective. As a result, foreign citizens and companies regularly seek access to the European Single Market as well as US territory. However, from travel bans to trade wars on both sides of the Atlantic, such requests for access have been met with various isolationist tendencies.

... Read more about 2018 Harvard European Law Symposium — Europe and the US: Isolationism First?

The Eurozone was the big positive surprise of the global economy in 2017. Growth has returned, unemployment is dropping and anti-European sentiment has been defeated; for now. Will Eurozone policymakers use the “good times” to move ahead with further integration or does the...

Read more about Is it Still not Politics, Stupid? The Eurozone’s Balancing Act Between Cyclical Growth and Structural Reforms

We live in an age defined by information. Both, the volume of data that companies and governments hold about individuals, and the ways in which these data can be used, are expanding on daily basis. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic are struggling to keep up, as the law is...

Read more about Data Protection from a Transatlantic Perspective: How Private Are EU Citizens' Data?

This presentation will evaluate the proposition that the diversity of capitalisms on the continent makes the operation of a monetary union difficult, if not impossible. It will ask: what can be done about that?

Speaker: Moreno Bertoldi,...

Read more about The Deepening of EMU and its Impact on Varieties of Capitalism in Europe

Prof. em. Cottier will discuss some of the jurisprudential issues involved in current WTO disputes and focus on contractual and constitutional interpretation of WTO Law. The discussion will be chaired by Professor Mark Wu and Professor José Manuel Martínez.

Chairs:...

Read more about Current Challenges of WTO Dispute Settlement: Activism vs. Constructivism

This Talk by the Chairman of the International Law Commission in the United Nations will examine the role of international law in a changing global order. Prof. Nolte will provide his insights on whether it would it be appropriate to revisit classical elements of international law in order to react to structural changes, which may give rise to a more polycentric or non-polar world order. The event is co-sponsored by the Harvard European Law Association and Prof. Martínez will be the Chair.

Speaker: Prof. Georg Nolte, Chairman UN’s International Law...

Read more about The Decline of the International Rule of Law?

Dr. Neufiend will lay out how major stakeholders in Germany are currently discussing the digital transformation, and particularly its effects on the labor market and the welfare system. He will then present the structure and key findings of a comprehensive dialogue process on the future of work and welfare, initiated by the German Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. He will elaborate on specific challenges Germany faces based on its institutional set-up, vis-à-vis other varieties of capitalism. He concludes by describing policy options currently being discussed within the German government and public sphere, and will offer more general suggestions on how to reform the “German model” to adapt it to the digital age.... Read more about The Future of Work and Welfare – A German Perspective

In recent years, the European Commission has ordered EU Member States to recover millions of euros from companies that had received State support in the form of preferential tax treatment, mostly granted by means of advance tax rulings and in some cases connected with unintended tax advantages arising from the exploitation of cross-border tax disparities. The issuing of such orders constituted the first major bulk of procedures enforcing the prohibition of State aids in tax matters and affecting mainly (though not exclusively) US multinational enterprises.

... Read more about Transatlantic Tax Forum

Global competition engages the EU and the US in a battle for competitive tax policies. The prohibition of State aids and the compatibility of export subsidies with WTO will be tackled among other issues. The panelists will evaluate how EU and the US are re-shaping their tax systems. The dichotomy between national and supranational competences on tax matters inside the EU represent an additional element of complexity in the development of the external strategy of the European Union in this field.

... Read more about EU and US Strategies for Competitive Tax Policies