The OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project represents the most important development of the last decades in international taxation. The first round of the BEPS project made several recommendations for changes to tax treaties in order to make them less susceptible to the use in aggressive tax planning structures shifting profits from high tax to low tax jurisdictions and eroding the tax base of countries where actual profit-generating activities take place. The lecture examines to what extent and in which form these recommendations have been implemented in the existing treaty network. It aims at providing an understanding of the rationale and mechanism of the rules implemented in treaties as a result of BEPS. In addition, it discusses what scope is left for tax planning using tax treaties in the post-BEPS era by assessing the effectiveness of the BEPS-related treaty changes and the room inadvertently or purposefully left open for tax competition.

The ECJ's direct tax case law based on the EU fundamental freedoms seems to have evolved over the last thirty years. Fairly simple, though general, EU Treaty provisions – as interpreted by the ECJ in direct tax cases - have led to substantial changes in the direct tax laws of EU Member States. For the last few years, the jurisprudence of the Court attempts to explore the boundaries of the impact of the EU Treaty on the domestic tax legislation of Member States. The course entails an analysis of the recent trends in the ECJ's case law in this area. It will endeavor to analyze the ECJ's understanding of the basic concepts on which the EU direct tax case law is based and its application in the current jurisprudence.

The Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (MLI) was a new phenomenon in international taxation at the time of its adoption. It was developed to change the existing tax treaties by way of a single instrument in order to include in them measures recommended by the BEPS project, mainly aimed at preventing tax treaty abuse. The lecture examines the actual effect that the MLI has on tax treaties focusing on its flexible nature which offers many possibilities to the parties for reservations, opt-ins and alternatives making it fit for various bilateral relations. We will also discuss the mechanism through which the MLI modifies existing tax treaties, all with the aim of understanding how the MLI changes the application of tax treaties as we currently know it.