Multilateral Cooperation in Tax Law

1. Introduction

1.1. What is multilateralism?

By looking at the Cambridge English Dictionary which defines multilateralism as „a situation in which several different countries or organizations work together to achieve something or deal with a problem”, one could conclude that defining multilateralism is pretty simple, but the task is not so straightforward.

Keohane defined it as “a practice of coordinating national policies in groups of three or more states, through ad hoc arrangements or by means of institutions” S. 202which should be strictly distinguished from “ad hoc meetings and short term arrangements to solve particular problems”.

Ruggie extended this definition by adding that multilateralism includes coordination under certain principles, i.e. generalized principles of conduct, indivisibility, and diffuse reciprocity.

Given that the term multilateralism is often confused with multilateral institutions, a distinction should be drawn between them by emphasizing that multilateral institutions refer to multilateral organizations while the multilateralism presupposes a conception, i.e. an organizational principle to manage transnational problems.^,

1.2. Is there multilateralism in the decis...