TAX HAVENS CONFERENCE 2017 - Tax Havens and the Developing World: The Global Dimension

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Category Development, History, Tax, criminal networks, weak and failed states

Deadline: May 30, 2017 | Date: August 01, 2017-August 03, 2017

Venue/Country: University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Updated: 2017-04-25 04:31:40 (GMT+9)

Call For Papers - CFP

Call for Papers

Tax Havens and the Developing World: The Global Dimension

University of Ibadan, 2-4 August 2017

Confirmed keynote speaker:

Professor Akpan H. Ekpo, FNES, Director General, West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM)

This conference seeks to reflect on the consequences of the existence of tax havens for the developing world. It is an effort to create new pathways in the scholarship on this important theme. The global web of tax and secret havens have been nursed and protected over the years by different countries. By their definition and scope, tax havens are geographical areas outside the jurisdictions of one’s home country. They rarely impose restrictions on business activities within their jurisdictions and attract little or no income tax. In the developing world, the issue of tax havens has revolved largely around the questions of graft, corruption and money laundering. Our aim at this conference, therefore, is to address this issue from a multiplicity of methodological approaches and areas of focus. The hiding of assets by individuals, government officials, corporations and others, from home governments in the developing world should now be interrogated closely in the global age to understand the causes and effects of hiding assets in tax havens across the world. Tax havens have drawn anger and frustration from the developing world. The resulting capital flight has left the economy prostrate, livelihoods stunted and all infrastructure comatose. The continued deterioration of basic services, mass unemployment and lack of welfare services and programmes have turned the countries of the developing world into boiling cauldrons. Many of their citizens are fleeing in search of better lives beyond their own shores. The countries of the developing world are yet to meet the necessities of life. Poverty stalks the land while some swim in a sea of relative affluence.

The hiding of assets has assumed wider dimensions in the 21st century. How do we begin to change the rules of the game and transform the financial and global economic landscape to understand the interest of the developing world? Who should be held to account? With the outbreak of the Panama Papers scandal in 2016 and the role that foreign banks and tax havens play in sheltering assets, it is now more urgent to understand not only the workings of this phenomenon but also their implications for the developing world. It has sucked the much-needed capital out of developing countries and left them gasping for breath in an increasingly hostile world. It has been estimated that about $16 billion leave Africa illegally annually. These included missing revenues, under-declared revenues, proceeds of graft, corruption, and undeclared profits. The inequalities arising from global economic structures have compounded development and existentialist issues in the developing world. How do we begin to understand the complex nature of tax havens and the implications of their existence for the developing world?

The Centre for General Studies (CGS) in conjunction with the Office of International Programmes (OIP), University of Ibadan, Nigeria, invite proposals for individual papers or panels (3-4 papers) related to the theme of the conference. The conference will bring together scholars, specialists, NGOs, CSOs, professionals, government officials and interested observers and commentators from all over the world to make presentations on matters that touch on tax havens and the future of the developing world. It also hopes to serve as a platform for a global network of scholars, experts and professionals dedicated to the understanding and combating the pernicious effects of tax havens on the developing world. Interested participants are to send abstracts of between 250 and 400 words, including full contact details (title, name, address, email address) as well as their affiliations by May 30 to: cgstaxhavensconf2017gmail.com

cc: olutayo27gmail.com or pejuodekuyahoo.com

The deadline for submission of full papers is July 10, 2017.

Possible topics for discussion and their relation to the existence of Tax Havens may include, but are not limited to the following:

Philosophical, theoretical, historical/historiographical understandings of tax havens

• Tax havens and the dynamics of development

• Corporate service providers and shell companies

• International cooperation to combat illicit financial flows

• International financial and monetary institutions/systems

National and International Perspectives

• State-owned enterprises

• Financial controls and management in the developing world

• Whistle-blowers

• Leadership, governance and development

• Offshore bank accounts

• Examination of national anti-corruption policies

• Assets, assets recovery and international transactions

• Information and communications technology (ICT)

Law, Justice and Human Rights

• Tax laws

• Criminal networks

• Law and bi-lateral cooperation on corruption cases

• Weak laws

Peace, Conflict and Security Issues

• Failed and near-failed States

• Poverty

Insurgency

Development and Global Issues

• Ethical issues in development

• Sustainable growth and development

• Poverty and marginalization

• Development plans

• Foreign aid

• Multinational corporations

• The politics of the developed world

• Global finance and development

• Human resources

• Corruption, inflation and capital flight

• Economic sabotage

• New paradigms of development

• The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC)

Organisers:

Prof. Olutayo C. Adesina,

Professor of History, Department of History

&

Director, Centre for General Studies,

University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Tel: +234-8023151255

E-mail: oc.adesinaui.edu.ng

Alt. Email: olutayo27gmail.com

http://arts.ui.edu.ng/OCAdesina

and

Professor Oluwatoyin A. Odeku

Professor of Pharmaceutics, Department of Pharmaceutics & Industrial Pharmacy

Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan

Tel: 234 8057320466

Email: pejuodekuyahoo.com; o.odekumail.ui.edu.ng

Web page: http://pharm.ui.edu.ng/OAOdeku

&

Director,

Office of International Programmes

University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

http://oip.ui.edu.ng/