In any democratically constituted regime, the real value of the principle of equality can be measured in a very revealing way: by evaluating the consistency and impartiality of tax legislation and its judicial review. Such an evaluation, using a comparative approach to applicable law in several European jurisdictions, is essentially what this book provides. The authors examine such areas as: national variations in the extent of judicial power to review tax legislation; discriminatory tax legislation arising as a response to interest group pressures; the European Convention on Human Rights as the basis for the development of a fully operational principle of equality and the degree of appreciation that should be accorded the democratically legitimized legislature by the judiciary. It also covers: the obligation to provide actual redress to victims of discrimination and the effect of the principle of freedom of establishment on the rules of international tax law. The authors refer throughout to all relevant sources of applicable law, including national constitutions, legislation and case law; th EC Treaty and the European Convention on Human Rights; and the case law of the European Court of Justice and the Euroepan Court of Human Rights.
