Department of Law and Governance

Publications

• Lind, Yvette (2024)
  The Problem of Expertise. The Practice of Offering Mobile Workers Preferential Expert Tax Regimes - A Swedish Perspective
• Iversen, Astrid & Franchini, Daniel (2024)
  Frozen Russian Assets to Finance Ukraine: Collateralization Instead of Confiscation
  Lawfare Blog.
• Ellingsæter, Sjur Swensen (2024)
  Could it Happen in the EU? An Analysis of Loss Distribution between Shareholders and AT1 Bondholders under EU Law
  Journal of Financial Regulation, p. 1-19. Doi: 10.1093/jfr/fjae003
• Esayas, Samson Yoseph & Hauglid, Mathias K. (2024)
  Public Sector Digitalisation in Norway: Current Trends and Challenges in the Legal Framework
  Doi: 10.6027/temanord2024-503
  Show summary

  This chapter explores Norway's public digitalization efforts, assessing the effectiveness of legislative and policy measures in advancing the public sector's digitalization and examining the adequacy of safeguards for fundamental rights. Norway stands out for its highly digitalized public sector, a result of strategic legislative and policy initiatives promoting a digital-friendly environment. We pinpoint three key areas of focus in these endeavors. First, there have been numerous legislative initiatives enabling profiling and automated decision making in public agencies. While driven by efficiency objectives, these initiatives tend to be seen as tools to promote equal treatment. Second, changes have been made to counter challenges in data reuse hindering digital transformation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) implementation. Third, the advocacy for regulatory sandboxes emerges as a powerful force for experimentation and learning, with platforms like the Sandbox for Responsible AI setting examples. Despite the progress, challenges persist. Firstly, most initiatives focus on enabling decisions via hard-coded software, often neglecting advanced AI systems designed for decision support. Secondly, discretionary criteria in public administration law and semantic discrepancies across sector-specific regulations continue to be a stumbling block for automation and streamlined service delivery. Importantly, few laws directly tackle the challenges digitalization presents to fundamental democratic values and rights, due to a fragmented, sector-focused approach. Furthermore, we assess the AI Act's potential to facilitate AI implementation while redressing national law gaps concerning human rights and boosting AI use in public agencies. The Act places public administration under sharp scrutiny, as the bulk of the prohibitions and high-risk AI applications target the public sector’s use of AI. This focus promises to enhance the protection of individuals in this domain, especially concerning transparency, privacy, data protection, and anti-discrimination. Yet, we identify a potential conflict between the AI Act and a tendency in the Norwegian legal framework to restrict the use of AI for certain purposes. Finally, we put forth recommendations to boost digitalization while safeguarding human rights. Legislative actions should pave the way for the integration of advanced AI systems intended for decision support. There is a need for coordination of sector-specific initiatives and assessment of their impact on fundamental rights. To amplify these national endeavors, we point out areas where cross-border collaborations in the Nordic-Baltic regions could be vital, emphasizing data sharing, and learning from successful projects. Regulatory sandboxes offer another promising avenue for collaboration. With its considerable experience in sandboxes tailored for responsible AI, Norway stands as a beacon for other nations in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

• Furuseth, Eivind (2024)
  Norway – Interest deduction rules; PRA Group Europe AS – Appeal Court
• Furuseth, Eivind (2024)
  Norway – Case E-3/21 PRA Group Europe AS – Interest Limitation Rule
• Innset, Ola & Rudberg, Elin Åström (2024)
  Varieties of Marketization
  Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research, 9(1), p. 11-27. Doi: 10.18261/nwr.9.1.2
• Furuseth, Eivind (2024)
  Norway: Royalty or Business Income – A Credit for Tax not levied in Accordance with the Convention?
• Ellingsæter, Sjur Swensen (2024)
  Disqualification of directors
• Innset, Ola (2024)
  Tor Bjørklund i samarbeid med Axel Fjeldavli Norske partier og velgere. Valgresultatenes historiske røtter
  Historisk Tidsskrift (Norge), 103(1), p. 69-72. Doi: 10.18261/ht.103.1.8
• Espeli, Harald (2024)
  The labor movement’s pragmatic attitude towards minimum wage legislation (1915–1940)
  Arbeiderhistorie, 38(1), p. 47-68. Doi: 10.18261/arbeiderhistorie.38.1.4
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  Statlig minstelønnsregulering stod i varierende grad på den politiske dagsorden fra 1915 til 1940. Denne artikkelen ser nærmere på hvordan arbeiderbevegelsen, det vil si Landsorganisasjonen, relevante fagforbund og arbeiderpartiene så på slik lovregulering. Arbeiderbevegelsen støttet de to minstelønnslovene vedtatt i 1918 til fordel for ressurssvake grupper fordi disse vanskelig kunne bedre sin situasjon på kort sikt gjennom effektiv fagorganisering. Landsorganisasjonen og Arbeiderpartiet gikk i 1937 av samme grunn inn for minstelønnsregulering i jordbruket, men landsmøtet i Norsk Skog- og Landarbeiderforbund avviste skissen til lovregulering samme år. Det klareste uttrykk for arbeiderbevegelsens pragmatiske holdning til minstelønnslovgivning var bekledningsarbeiderforbundet, som hadde et vedtektsfestet forbud mot industrielt hjemmearbeid. Samtidig ble forbundet den fremste støttespilleren for minstelønnsreguleringene i hjemmearbeidsloven i løpet av mellomkrigstiden

• Innset, Ola (2024)
  State-owned enterprises after the market turn: Hybridisation and the historical development of nested paradoxes in the case of Norway
  Business History. Doi: 10.1080/00076791.2024.2353661
• Boucht, Per Johan Petersson (2024)
  Inndragning og Grunnloven § 96 tredje ledd
  Tidsskrift for Rettsvitenskap, 137(1), p. 128-171. Doi: 10.18261/tfr.137.1.2
• Hemmingby, Anette (2024)
  Kommentarer til arbeidsmiljøloven §8.4
  Arbeidsrett.
• Parlov, Iva & Sverdrup, Ulf (2024)
  The Emerging “Shadow Fleet” as a Maritime Security and Ocean Governance Challenge
• Lind, Yvette (2023)
  A Fiscal Exploration of the Social Contract in Times of Crisis – Financially Sound or Unfair to the Taxpayers?
  Austaxpolicy.
• Lind, Yvette (2023)
  How to Award Financial Aid Amidst a Pandemic Through the Lens of a Tax Scholar
  Show summary

  This chapter describes and analyses the necessary considerations, both of a practical and theoretical nature, when attempting to design a legal framework for how to award fi nancial aid in connection to an epidemic, pandemic, or crisis. Consequently, the chapter provides an in-depth commentary on the what may be considered as a best-practice design and implementation of such fi nancial aid measures through the inclusion of legal, economic and political considerations. Th ese considerations are drawn from both legal and economic scholarship and are supported by empirical material gathered from a variety of jurisdictions across the globe.

• Novovic, Milos (2023)
  Arbitrability of Data Protection Disputes: Personal Data, Personalized Justice?
  European Review of Contract Law (ERCL), 19(3), p. 215-238. Doi: 10.1515/ercl-2023-2012
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  This article explores the interplay between international arbitration and data subject compensation claims under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The analysis focuses on the validity and enforcement of arbitration agreements and the resulting awards. The article argues that despite potential skepticism, arbitration can offer significant benefits to data subjects, and that compensation claims under the GDPR should be considered arbitrable under the New York Convention and CJEU case law. The article further argues that EU courts have a duty to refer disputes to arbitration, and that the mandatory provisions of EU law have limited means of interfering with this duty. Furthermore, it establishes that the misapplication of GDPR provisions does not automatically justify the denial of arbitral award recognition. The article argues that this is a natural extension of trust traditionally shown to arbitrators, and that such trust should not be easily cast aside.

• Christensen, Sverre August (2023)
  Explaining State Ownership in Listed Companies in Norway
  Enterprise & Society. Doi: 10.1017/eso.2023.19
• Eftestøl, Ellen J. & Yliheljo, Emilie (2023)
  International Shipping: Who Levels the Playing Field?
  Doi: 10.1163/9789004518681_010
• Birkeland, Kari (2023)
  Kommentarer til regnskapsførerloven 1993
  Karnov lovkommentarer.
• Inghammar, Andreas & Skjønberg, Alexander Sønderland (2023)
  The Impact of Populism on Scandinavian Labour Law: The Cases of Norway and Sweden
  International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, 39(1), p. 97-120. Doi: 10.54648/ijcl2023006
  Show summary

  Modern populism has developed in Scandinavia since at least the 1970s, first in Norway and Denmark but more recently also in Sweden. Populist political parties have been well-established in Scandinavian Parliaments for many years. However, from a labour law perspective, the populist impact, if any, has been limited and populist discourse has primarily focused on issues such as migration and the European Union (EU), and to some extent ‘welfare tourism’. This article examines the development of populist movements in Norway and Sweden and analyses the possible impact of populist policies on national labour law. The conclusion is that Nordic industrial relations and labour market regulations, based on strong and representative trade unions and well-organized and responsible employer federations, act as a robust counterweight to populist policies on the labour market. Section 2 of the article consists of a discussion of how we understand the development of modern populism in a Norwegian and Swedish perspective. Section 3 explores the extent to which populist political ideas have directly impacted or indirectly influenced labour market regulations in the two countries. In concluding, section 4 monitors the potency of strong and well-established industrial relations as a countervailing force to populist political movements.

• Lind, Yvette (2023)
  Scandinavian Law through the Looking Glass: A Comparative Study on the Historical Development of GAARs in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway
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  This paper explores how general anti-avoidance rules (GAARs) have developed over time in the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, and Norway) and what this development can convey when considering legal culture and legal traditions in the individual countries. Consequently, the issue is approached from a comparative perspective. The traditional acceptance of a strong Scandinavian legal culture is revisited with the intention of providing an enhanced understanding of the power dynamics between the legislator, the judiciary, and the tax administration within the Scandinavian tax systems. The findings of the study are of great relevance to other jurisdictions given the impact of ongoing international tax developments at OECD and EU level

• Tørstad, Vegard Heggelund (2023)
  Can transparency strengthen the legitimacy of international institutions? Evidence from the UN Security Council
  Journal of Peace Research. Doi: 10.1177/00223433221123996
  Show summary

  Can transparency enhance the legitimacy of international institutions? As transparency has become a widely applied procedural standard in international politics, a range of institutions have implemented transparency reforms under the presumption that increased transparency can elicit support among relevant audiences. This article evaluates whether increased transparency in the UN Security Council leads to enhanced legitimacy perceptions among UN member-states. The article first traces the history of Security Council reform since 1990 and draws on interviews with diplomats and observers to describe a transparency reform the Council enacted in 2006. Next, the article uses longitudinal content analysis to empirically probe the legitimation effects of that transparency reform. The empirical analysis is based on an original dataset of 4,303 legitimacy statements made by UN member-states in annual UN General Assembly debates over the periods 1990–2006 and 2006–18. The findings cast doubt over the potential of transparency reform to improve the Council’s legitimacy; instead they suggest that increasing the direct participation of the wider UN membership may be a more viable legitimation strategy. This article contributes to existing international legitimacy literature by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between transparency and legitimacy, and by demonstrating which institutional features that affect the perceived legitimacy of the Security Council.

• Ellingsæter, Sjur Swensen (2023)
  Konkurs og rekonstruksjon
• Gunnarson, Åsa & Lind, Yvette (2023)
  Swedish (tax) constitutionalism. Through the lens of equality and fairness
  Review of international and European Economic Law (RIEEL), 2(3).
  Show summary

  Like any other country, Sweden has constitutional rules that affect the tax system. According to the authors, said constitutional norms focus on a certain tradition that must be evaluated on the basis of a new understanding of the function of tax constitutional law, and the formal and legal aspects of the constitution must be studied in the context of the political and economic objectives of these regulations. For the authors, this approach is particularly important since modern tax systems seem to increase the structural problems of fair and sustainable taxation. Likewise, they emphasize the relevance of human rights to frame tax policies and how they can serve as a bridge between tax policies and issues related to social and economic justice.

• Esayas, Samson Yoseph (2023)
  The Important Role of Emergence in Conceptualizing the Challenges of New Technologies to Private Law
  European Review of Private Law, 31(4), p. 779-822.
  Show summary

  Consider the following legal quandaries: a victim of a wrongdoing without a perpetrator, a work of art without an author, or the possibility that the sum of legally compliant behaviors give rise to non-compliance. Welcome to the world of emergence in law. The concept of emergent properties is central to systems thinking. It is commonly expressed as “the whole is more than the sum of its parts” where the “whole” represents the “emergent property.” This concept helps us understand how complexity emerges and allows systems engineers to look beyond the properties of individual components of a system and understand the system as a complex whole. In practice, this way of thinking militates against two kinds of fallacies: the fallacy of composition and the fallacy of division. The former occurs when one wrongfully attributes the properties of the component parts to the system as a whole whereas the latter arises when one wrongfully attributes the properties of the system as a whole to component parts. I argue that emergence provides an overarching framework to explain the challenges that technological developments associated with big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics pose for different domains of private law, including privacy, data protection, IP, and tort laws. By creating new objects, possibilities for new action and new relationships, changes associated with the above technologies encourage the formation of emergent properties, which in turn pose attribution challenges for these legal domains. Two attribution challenges are particularly noteworthy. If we fail to address them properly, they may lead to the fallacies of composition and/or division. Further, emergence may help explain some of the regulatory responses and suggestions provoked by changes associated with the above technologies. For example, emergence and the desire to avoid the fallacy of division can explain suggestions to grant AI systems some form of legal (electronic) personhood and thereby bestow legal responsibility or entitlement on them. Thus, one way the law might usefully adapt during times of technological change would be by taking emergence seriously. This includes recognizing the possibility that the sum of fully complaint behaviours may create behaviour that is not compliant or not in the spirit of the law. Taking emergence seriously would also include being open to the prospect of a harm or legal entitlement existing without a perpetrator or a rightholder and finding new ways to address this prospect.

• Espeli, Harald (2023)
  Handelslønnsloven 1918–1925 – et lokalhistorisk perspektiv
  Heimen - Lokal og regional historie, 59(4), p. 330-350. Doi: 10.18261/heimen.59.4.5
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  Artikkelen beskriver og analyserer i hvilken grad og hvordan minstelønnsloven for underordnede handelsfolk av 1918 ble innført og eventuelt avviklet i norske kommuner frem til loven ble avviklet i 1925. 40 kommuner innførte loven i hele eller deler av perioden loven gjaldt, hvorav de fleste var større byer. Minstelønnsloven omfattet de fleste funksjonærer i privat sektor og var en radikal reguleringsform som krevde kommunestyrevedtak for å bli innført og videreført etter 1921. I og med at minstelønnssatsene var de samme for kvinner og menn, var loven et viktig lønnspolitisk likestillingstiltak i Norge. Loven krevde en aktiv kommunalpolitisk forankring som ikke er undersøkt tidligere. Artikkelen bygger på bredt kildemateriale fra blant annet byarkiver og lokalaviser

• Tveit, Andreas Kokkvoll & Tørstad, Vegard (2023)
  The relative effectiveness of overlapping international institutions: European Union versus United Nations regulations of air pollution
  International Political Science Review, p. 1-14. Doi: 10.1177/01925121221145496
  Show summary

  Which types of international institutions display higher ability to change states’ behaviour? This article assesses the relative environmental effectiveness of a management-based (‘soft’) and an enforcement-based (‘hard’) international agreement: the United Nations Sofia Protocol and a European Union directive. Using difference-in-differences analysis, we find that the European Union directive is more effective in inducing emissions reductions than the United Nation’s Sofia Protocol. We propose that the European Union’s enforcement capacity is a likely driver of the directive’s effectiveness. The article makes two contributions to existing literature. First, we provide causal evidence on the relative importance of overlapping international institutions in regulating environmental policy outcomes, elucidating how an apparent emissions-reducing effect of a ‘soft’ United Nations Protocol is in fact driven by the existence of overlapping ‘hard’ European Union regulation. Second, we demonstrate how states’ enthusiasm for emissions regulations can explain the relative effectiveness of soft and hard law institutions.

• Nygaard, Pål; Erlien, Trond Holmen & Petersen Malonæs, Tine (2023)
  The role of projects in shaping businesses capabilities and structure since the 1960s
  Business History, p. 1-24. Doi: 10.1080/00076791.2023.2204230
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  Project studies have emerged as a thriving subfield of management and organisation research. Central to project studies, is the idea that engaging in projects has long-term effects on businesses capabilities and structure. While understanding organisational change has been central to business history’s mission, historians have paid little attention to the role projects play in shaping organisations. We address this gap. Based on three cases, we analyse why and how businesses in different contexts increased their engagement with projects, whether their engagement was part of a conscious strategy, and how it affected their structure and capabilities. The article contributes to business history by showing how concepts developed in project studies cast new light on projects as a historical phenomenon and provides a valuable theoretical framework for explaining organisational change. Based on this, we suggest projects constitute a fruitful avenue for further historical research and interdisciplinary dialogue with management and organisation research.

• Eftestøl, Ellen J. (2023)
  The proposed extension of the EU-ETS to shipping – BIMCO´s ETS – allowances (ETSA) clause for time charter parties 2022 filling a legal gap
• Hotvedt, Marianne Jenum & Skjønberg, Alexander Sønderland (2023)
  The Supreme Court's Influence on the Evolution of Labour Law in Norway
• Innset, Ola (2023)
  From open borders to ‘rasisit’: libertarianism and populism on the Scandinavian periphery (1980–1994)
  Journal of Political Ideologies, p. 373-391. Doi: 10.1080/13569317.2023.2249647
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  In 1980s Norway, a group committed to libertarian ideology became influential within Fremskrittspartiet. This new party became known for its opposition not only to taxation and public spending, but also to non-western immigration. The libertarians within the same party, however, advocated open borders. The libertarians were ousted from the party in 1994, but libertarianism has remained a key plank in the party’s otherwise national-conservative ideology. Crossovers and alliances between cosmopolitan libertarians and nationalistic anti-immigration groups have become commonplace, and through an analysis of the Norwegian libertarian movement, I argue that these are possible due to the idea of open borders only holding a peripheral position within libertarian ideology. The issue of open borders was given some attention in debates between libertarians and populists within FrP, but was not an important ideological concept for the intellectuals behind the libertarian journal Ideer om Frihet. The article thus argues that a commitment to what we may call cosmopolitanism does exist within libertarianism and may be used to make sense of core concepts such as individualism, freedom and markets, but is nonetheless expendable for most libertarians, as they were for the Norwegian libertarians who found a home in the country’s most nativist political party.

• Eidsvold-Tøien, Irina & Stenvik, Are (2023)
  Copyright for Performers – An Obligation under International Law
  Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP), 18(10). Doi: 10.1093/jiplp/jpad073
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  Performers’ performances are protected through a so-called neighbouring rights structure, which is in some respects weaker than the copyright proper. Most importantly, performers’ performances have a shorter term of protection than works of authorship and are not protected against imitations. Nor is the protection conditional upon the performance taking a particular form; the protection conferred on a professional, outstanding artistic performance is the same as that conferred on a reading by a child. It has long been debated whether performing artists, in addition to or instead of neighbouring rights, can claim copyright to their performances as adaptations of the performed work. Such protection would be based on the performer’s cultural contribution and might serve to put the performance on a par with other creative works, such as the painter’s expression of how she sees and wishes to convey a landscape or the translator’s recreation of a literary work in another language. In the article, we conclude that neither international treaties nor European Union law (EU- Law) prevents the granting of copyright to performers’ original performances in national law and EU law. On the contrary, the uniform meaning of the term ‘work of authorship’ in EU law probably implies that Member States are required to grant copyright protection in performers’ performances that fulfil the originality requirement.

• Emberland, Marius (2023)
  Kommentarer til Lov om etterretningstjenesten, Karnov lovkommentarer (2023)
  Karnov lovkommentarer.
• Lind, Yvette (2023)
  Blurring the separation of powers – a legal and political study of the phenomenon of tax administrations moving from the executive branch towards the legislative branch
  eJournal of Tax Research, 21(2), p. 383-405.
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  This article elucidates the more recent developments concerning the role and mandate of tax administrations and the consequential contemporary challenges that these events pose to democracy, in particular the separation of powers. In some jurisdictions, there has been a noticeable evolution whereby tax administrations have moved from being the executive branch, stated differently, enforcing tax laws, and collecting tax revenues, towards being part of the legislative branch. The Covid-19 pandemic and the emergency mandates that were enacted amidst it facilitated various governmental agencies, such as the tax administration, to gain greater numbers of mandates and to operate without boundaries due to the ongoing crisis. However, the extension of the mandate given to tax administrations was already noticeable in some jurisdictions before the pandemic with Sweden being one good example, a pre-existing process that the author argues has been enabled and exacerbated by the last three decades of international tax developments at the OECD and EU levels in connection to the regulation of international tax competition and harmful tax practices. Sweden is used as a case study, but the findings are applicable to a multitude of jurisdictions given the nature of the topic and subsequent discussions.

• Skjønberg, Alexander Sønderland (2023)
  Norway Supreme Court HR-2021-1193-A Individual after-effect of provisions of salary supplement cannot be based on the norms of managerial prerogative
• Stoknes, Per Espen; Aslaksen, Iulie, Goluke, Ulrich, Randers, Jørgen & Garnåsjordet, Per Arild (2023)
  Plausible futures for the Norwegian offshore energy sector: Business as usual, harvest or rebuild?
  Energy Policy, 184. Doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113887
• Bråthen, Tore Kristian (2023)
  HR-2023-1128-A (Kvinnherad Breiband): Utløses forkjøpsrett til aksjer av fusjon og fisjon?
  Nytt i privatretten : nyhetsbrev for informasjon på det privatret.
• Bergo, Knut (2023)
  Avveiningsmodellen- en analyse av norske særtrekk
  Jussens venner, 58, p. 252-303.
• Furuseth, Eivind (2023)
  Norway: Whether the Norwegian/Domestic Tax Credit Rules Were in Conflict with Article 23 of the Tax Treaty – Case No: 19-083263TVI-THOD/1
• Hernes, Gudmund (2023)
  Medier, makt og myter. Krigen på bakken, krigen i mediene og krigen om mytene
  Norsk Medietidsskrift, 30(3). Doi: 10.18261/nmt.30.3.8
• Ericson, Ingvild Schiøll (2023)
  MyGame, strømming av breddeidrett og barns personvern
  Lov & Data.
• Furuseth, Eivind (2023)
  Mandatory disclosure rules in Norway
• Furuseth, Eivind (2023)
  Good faith in domestic and international tax law - Norway
• Furuseth, Eivind (2023)
  Norway: Supreme Court - Posseidon (HR-2021-1243-A)
• Sogner, Knut (2023)
  Academics as teachers of business responsibility? Historians, philosophers, and the maturation of the young minds within Norwegian business schools
  Doi: 10.4337/9781035313174
• Lind, Yvette (2023)
  Pandemocracy in Europe: Power, Parliaments and People in Times of COVID-19
  The American journal of comparative law. Doi: 10.1093/ajcl/avad025
• Birkeland, Kari (2023)
  Kommentarer til regnskapsførerloven av 2022
  Karnov lovkommentarer.
• Innset, Ola (2023)
  Dual Argument, Double Truth: On the Continued Importance of the State in Neoliberal Thought.
  Journal of the History of Economic Thought (JHET). Doi: 10.1017/S105383722200044X
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  It has been established that the neoliberal creed arising in the interwar and early postwar years, despite its strong rejection of economic planning, also entailed a rejection of laissez-faire liberalism. This article argues that recent attempts at construing early neoliberalism as thus being a more nuanced or moderate creed than later iterations are nonetheless flawed. The “dual argument” of early neoliberalism indicated a new approach to market liberalism in which the state was not seen as the market’s opposite but rather its precondition. This important move is obscured by the language of moderation and nuance. In place of “the radicalization thesis,” the second part of the article considers Philip Mirowski’s concept of a “double-truth doctrine” and argues that an appreciation of the state for social and economic governance is a common feature of different neoliberalisms, which nonetheless differ in their preferred policy suggestions for the use of state power.

• Benestad Anderssen, Harald (2023)
  Lovkommentarer til Forbrukerkjøpsloven
  Karnov lovkommentarer.
• Gjems-Onstad, Ole (2023)
  Tax Avoidance from a Norwegian Perspective: VAT Avoidance vs Income Tax Avoidance - The Norwegian 2020 Approach
• Skjønberg, Alexander Sønderland (2023)
  Etter hundre år var visst allting ikke glemt likevel : Høyesteretts dom i HR-2021-1193-A Grefsenhjemmet II
• Lind, Yvette (2023)
  The Fundamentals of Tax Incentives
  Skatterett, 42(1), p. 15-38. Doi: 10.18261/skatterett.42.1.3
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  Tax incentives play a central role when attempting to combat societal problems, such as climate change and wealth inequality, and many countries have attempted to employ such tax measures when pursuing policy goals and subsequently inducing behavioural change on the level of both consumption and production. However, the use of tax incentives instigates tax planning schemes and potentially disguised, and consequently unlawful, state aid. Therefore, tax incentives have been acknowledged by both the EU and the OECD as problematic when considering international tax competition. Therefore, the complexity of tax incentives is palpable and consequently offers a promising, but challenging, research field. Consequently, this paper provides an introduction to the anatomy of tax incentives. Policymakers and scholars from disciplines such as law, economics, and politics are provided an introduction to the methodological and theoretical considerations commonly linked to the design, implementation, and evaluation of such tax measures. These considerations are described through a multidisciplinary prism and therefore go beyond the traditional technical study often employed by legal scholars. In the spirit of moving beyond legal technicalities, the paper provides tools for how to evaluate a tax incentive once designed and implemented. This evaluation may be of a traditional legal nature, which involves an emphasis on technical features and the upholding of legal certainty (principally equal treatment and predictability). The evaluation may also acquire a political nature by focusing on the regulatory functions that have been dictated by underpinning tax policies. Finally, the evaluation may be of an economic nature where emphasis is placed on economic efficiency, economic competitiveness, administrative simplicity, adequacy, and equity. The paper pedagogically combines these differing lenses when arguing for a more holistic and pragmatic approach when contemplating tax incentives.