Navigating Global Tax Governance: A workshop with African Tax Administration Forum

Lecturers

Prof. Dr. Irma Mosquera

Professor of Global Tax Governance, Lead Researcher GLOBTAXGOV that investigates Global Tax Governance and EU Jean Monnet Chair Holder EUTAXGOV E-mail i.j.mosquera.valderrama@law.leidenuniv.nl

Guest lecturers

Prof.  Jérôme Monsenego Stockholm University

Dr. Bastiaan van Gaanzen Leiden University

Mr. Tofigh Hasen Nezhad Nisi Leiden University (t.b.c.)

ATAF representatives (t.b.a.)

Dates

14 November 2025, 13:00 UTC – 16:00 UTC

21 November 2025, 13:00 UTC – 16:00 UTC

28 November 2025, 13:00 UTC – 16:00 UTC

5 December 2025, 13:00 UTC – 16:00 UTC

Venue

Online

Summary

Since the 2008 financial crisis, multilateral cooperation in international tax law has developed at a fast pace. Currently, OECD and non-OECD countries have agreed to introduce international tax policy standards to tackle aggressive tax planning, to introduce a global minimum tax and to tax digital business among others. For individual countries, multilateral cooperation can result in economic benefits, but navigating the global governance architecture also bears many challenges. How to effectively engage in global governance processes? How to evaluate the outcomes?
In this workshop we will discuss the content of international tax standards and analyze the policy objectives and strategies pursued by different international, supranational and regional organizations, such as the United Nations, the OECD, the EU, among others, in the process. We will also pay attention to the challenges to the current structure of global governance due to the interactions between policy norms and legal instruments in the tax, trade and investment area.
In the first part, we will address how the global tax governance architecture has emerged and map the contemporary environment of international actors. Thereafter, we will discuss governance processes and actors involved in three case studies of specific policy areas: the role of the EU in the dissemination of BEPS standards, the taxation of the digital economy, and the introduction of a global minimum tax. In each case study, we will pay particular attention to the engagement of non-OECD countries with international institutions and the interaction between tax, trade and investment policy objectives and rules. In the final part of the workshop, we will discuss global tax governance under the lens of legitimacy and attempt to draw broader conclusions about the role of different actors in multilateral cooperation. Special attention will be given to the ongoing negotiation of the UN Framework Tax Convention and its two Protocols under the lens of legitimacy.

Procedure

Every session consists of lecture elements, input from ATAF, and general debates among all participants. In the lecture elements, the theoretical foundations will be exposed by Leiden University researchers. In the applied part, guest lecturers from ATAF discuss the topic based on examples from the region and based on ATAF’s experience in engaging in global tax governance. For the general debate, all participants are expected to actively participate and share their own experiences with the topic. To prepare for each session, all participants are requested to read the literature and complete the assignments.