The European Court of Justice has been alluding to abuse and abusive practices in its rulings for more than thirty years, although for a long time the significance of these references was unclear. This state of affairs has now changed radically, largely due to jurisprudential developments within the field of tax. The aim of this project is to analyse the evolution of the Court’s case law on abuse, from its origins to the latest rulings on taxation, in order to determine whether the ECJ references to abuse of law amount to a new general principle of Community law and, if so, what are the legal implications. This work was the subject of a major Centre conference held in October
2008, with the publication of a book based on contributions from leading experts in European Community law expected in 2009.
