A Study Of The Legal Institutions Of International Coordination Of Environmental Tax

This dissertation has the background of global environmental governance theory and practice and delves into international macro-economic policy coordination's branch of the coordination of environmental tax institutions.Besides the doctrinal study of legal rules and cases,the thesis applies economic theories as its backbone.As part of one country's fiscal policy,environmental tax has common tax nature of compulsivity and with nothing as its return.It also has its feature of the linkage to some environmental element as tax basis and with the purpose of fulfilling some environmental goals.As a market-oriented environmental policy arising from the 70 s of last century,environmental tax squats on the economic theory of public goods and negative externality.The coordination of macro-economic policy can be explained with game theory.In the globalized world without coordination the macro-economic policy spillover of different countries usually reach a Nash-Equilibrium which is least-favorite for all players.In the case of environmental tax,due to the difference in history,culture,society,each country has its unique tax system and has different types and mechanisms of environmental tax.This may lead to distortion of price and trade friction as well as leakage and transfer of pollution.Hence different environmental tax institutions need to be coordinated.An effective coordination of these institutions requires not only the common awareness and knowledge but also collective action to legislate and follow the rules.The collective action theory provides many insights on this point.Then,this dissertation takes the World Trade Organization WTO Border Tax Adjustment Legal System and the EU Energy Tax Directive as an example to elaborate the legal practice of international environmental tax coordination,including the background,history,content,implementation and enlightenment.While using the classical legal analysis method,it pays more attention to the economic theory as a new method to analyze various influencing factors in the environmental tax coordination legal system,e.g.the introduction of institutional theory,realistic background and formation process,and etc.If we compare the two institutions,BTA has many participants but loose in the legal sense,EU energy tax on the other hand has a smaller group and more binding.After considering the relevant variables three factors standout be more essential: First is an advanced institution,collective action and game theory both try to prove that coordinated most favorable action occurs in institutions with close relation and effective functions.In such an institution the cost of collective action is smaller.Second is about the baby steps in content of the coordination.After common policy and goals are reached,technical difference is the easier to surpass,finally to reach a new binding system.Last for macro-economic coordination the policy has to be applied to a similar level in different countries.As for China,WTO BTA is a complex system with the twists of different tax system especially for the technical hurdle in environmental tax,BTA is very convenient fallen to a tool of protectionism.China should be alert to secure her legitimate trade interest.Energy tax is the most important and spectacular environmental tax.China has built up an energy tax system.Under the central government policy of building up high standard free trade zone,energy tax may be a topic on the table.The EU experience can help China in the negotiation of coordination in energy tax but the huge influence energy tax has on national economy and society should also be kept in mind.The contributions of this dissertation are as follows: First,it analyzes the obstacles of the legal institutions of international environmental tax coordination,and proposes targeted solutions.Second,this dissertation explores the potential response for developing countries to deal with the challenges from the multinational corporations or investors of developed countries,since they may “ransack” the developing countries' carbon trading benefits under the international conventions.Third,under the background of global response to climate change,environmental taxes have gradually become the legal and economic means for some countries to protect the environment.As the forerunner and role model of the world's environmental standards and environmental policies,the EU has a lot of inspiration for the latecomers.