Review of International and European Economic Law

Editorial: Scientific and professional tribute to the Jeffrey Owens' Work

2026-04-27T23:10:37+00:00

Jeffrey Owens and the new architecture of contemporary “Tax & Good governance” in the 21st century and beyond

2026-04-27T22:15:01+00:00

This article offers a scholarly assessment of Professor Jeffrey Owens' intellectual and institutional contributions to contemporary tax law and tax governance, written on the occasion of his retirement from formal academic leadership and as director of the Vienna Center for Global Tax Policy. Rather than treating Owens simply as a prolific author or a senior civil servant, the article argues that his significance lies in the unusual combination of roles he has embodied for more than five decades: economist, senior international civil servant, architect of taxation and good governance, tax compliance and public intellectual on tax transparency, theorist of tax dispute prevention, and advocate of a model to combat international tax fraud and cross-border money laundering through enhanced international tax cooperation within a more inclusive and comprehensive framework.
The article reconstructs the main phases of his trajectory, from his early OECD work on comparative tax systems and fiscal reform, through his leadership of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, to his post-OECD period at the WU Global Tax Policy Center and his collaborations with other internationals organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, with other regional organizations: EU, CIAT, ATAF, etc. and with the tax administrations of the States around the world.
It is argued that Owens’s oeuvre should be read as a continuous attempt to reconcile efficiency, administrability, transparency, legitimacy, and international coordination under changing conditions of globalization. Particular attention is paid to his collaboration with Eva Andrés-Aucejo and other authors in the Review of International and European Economic Law (RIEEL), especially the project on a general agreement on international tax cooperation, trade and global tax governance and the latter works on a global tax legal order from a holistic perspective. These writings are examined not as peripheral essays, but as a late-career culmination of themes that had been developing throughout Owens’s earlier work: multilateralism, administrative cooperation, dispute prevention, tax compliance, institutional design, good government and the modernization of tax governance. In that sense, Owens’s later scholarship moves beyond technocratic coordination and toward a broader constitutional imagination for international economy and tax law. The article concludes that Jeffrey Owens’s legacy lies not only in the technical refinement of international tax policy, but also in expanding the horizon of what global tax governance can aspire to become.

Human Rights and Multinational and Transnational Corporations

2026-04-01T20:46:14+00:00

This paper constitutes a panoramic literature review of papers on human rights and transnational corporations published in the Scientific Electronic Library Online database in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Of course, the papers were not easy to search because they used different keywords. For example, companies, businesses, transnational corporations, multinational corporations, etc. Furthermore, the topics covered were very varied, focusing on international trade, foreign investment, labor issues, environmental issues, collective rights of indigenous communities or peoples, etc. The methodological perspectives and approaches also differ in each case; they are not always approached from a strictly legal perspective, but rather from a sociological, political, ethical, economic, and other perspectives. The authors were able to identify 105 papers and were able to specify the main concerns of the specialists, which is mentioned in the conclusions.

The illusion of virtue. Systemic reconceptualization of positive action leadership and proposal for common good leadership in universities

2026-03-31T20:21:48+00:00

The expansion of leadership programs in higher education has produced a normative overload that emphasizes the individual’s moral intention over the social effectiveness of leadership. This article critically examines the Positive Action Leadership (PAL) model, dominant in an international network of universities, and argues that it represents a pre-scientific stage of institutional leadership. Drawing on Aristotle’s four causes and systems theory, the study contends that PAL prioritizes the formation of personal virtues but fails to clearly define the mechanisms that translate that ideal into verifiable collective practices. Based on a sample of 655 university students, two gaps are identified: one between ideal and reality, and another of perception. Although students internalize the ethical discourse, they show weaknesses in resilience, congruence, and social agency. As an alternative, the article proposes the Leadership for the Common Good (LCG) model, validated through CB-SEM, focused on relational, assessable, and structurally mediated dimensions.

Cybercrime and its Evolution in the European and Spanish Regulatory Framework

2026-03-31T20:13:14+00:00

Cybercrime is a complex and global phenomenon that requires a multidisciplinary approach to understand and combat it effectively. Spain has approached the issue of cybersecurity in a fragmented, disorganised, and often belatedly manner, which has led to a cybercrime crisis at the legal and institutional levels. The European Union has responded to these threats with a series of legislative initiatives and cooperation strategies, culminating in the creation of the European Cybercrime Centre within Europol. In an increasingly connected world, the increase in cybercrime reflects the risks inherent in technological advancement and the digitalisation of society. Recent years have seen a significant rise in cybercrime incidents, leading to increased legislation to combat this phenomenon.

The Use of Emerging Technologies in Out of Court Dispute Management Procedures: International Legal Approach and Regulatory Challenges

2026-04-01T21:43:50+00:00

This article presents a study that examines the self-declared deployment of advanced analytics (AA) and artificial intelligence (AI) across thirteen tax administrations in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), incorporating Spain as an external comparative benchmark. Using self-reported information from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Inventory of Tax Technology Initiatives (ITTI), the study conducts a cross-sectional descriptive-comparative analysis of analytical infrastructure, specific technologies, functional use cases, and mechanisms of algorithmic governance. The findings show a regional consolidation of data infrastructure, a selective adoption of AI concentrated in risk and compliance-control functions, and a partial formalisation of ethical and technical oversight mechanisms. Overall, the results empirically distinguish between data digitalisation and institutional algorithmic maturity, revealing structural heterogeneity in the region’s self-declared AI deployment.

Perspective of Migrant Human Rights

2026-03-31T20:03:22+00:00

This essay is a brief analysis of the perspective of migrants within the protection of human rights and their perception as a vulnerable group, as well as some of the causes of migration, the risks involved, and the precedents that international law has for the protection of fundamental rights.

Evaluation of public policies on re-education and reintegration in Spain

2026-03-31T20:34:09+00:00

This article evaluates the effectiveness of public policies on re-education and social reintegration in Spain from a legal and criminological perspective, incorporating a democratic governance approach and its link to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using a mixed methodology that combines normative analysis and empirical data, the study assesses whether current policies comply with Article 25.2 of the Spanish Constitution. The findings show that alternative sanctions to imprisonment, such as suspended sentences and community service, achieve better outcomes in reducing recidivism than custodial penalties. Intervention programs, particularly in cases of gender-based violence, also demonstrate positive results. However, important limitations persist, including insufficient evaluation mechanisms and weak post-prison support. The study concludes that effective reintegration requires not only appropriate legal frameworks but also strong governance, institutional coordination, and alignment with international standards, especially SDG 16, in order to build a more just and inclusive penal system.