MPI TAX

Hugh Ault Fellows Ariel Jurow Kleiman and Marilyne Sadowsky as guests at the Institute

Hugh Ault Fellows Ariel Jurow Kleiman and Marilyne Sadowsky as guests at the Institute

Professor Ariel Jurow Kleiman and Professor Marilyne Sadowsky visited the MPI for Tax Law and Public Finance and provided insights into their research work.


Presentation of Ariel Jurow Kleiman, July 2023 © Julia Salzer

In July, a leading figure in tax scholarship in the U.S., Professor Ariel Jurow Kleiman, was a guest at our institute as a Hugh Ault Fellow. She presented her research in an eagerly awaited lecture on July 3. Jurow Kleiman studies how tax policy in the United States affects low-income households at the local, state, and federal levels. Simultaneously, she explores how fiscal institutions affect democratic outcomes and how this contribution to the democratic process affects fiscal institutions in turn. In her talk, she presented her recent work looking at the subjective compliance costs of tax return preparation in the United States as part of a field experiment.

Jurow Kleiman is a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Her recent publications have appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Tax Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal, among others. Jurow Kleiman regularly advises think tanks and public interest organizations on tax law.

Prior to joining Loyola Law School in 2021, Jurow Kleiman was an associate professor at the University of San Diego School of Law and an assistant professor of tax law at NYU. She received her law degree from Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Florence M. Kelley Prize for her work on the taxation of immigrant families.

Before she took up her teaching career, Jurow Kleiman received a Skadden Fellowship to work at Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, where she founded and directed the Bet Tzedek Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic. The program, which continued to thrive after her departure, has provided representation in tax controversies to hundreds of low-income and immigrant clients throughout Los Angeles and has achieved over $2 million in savings and refunds for its clients.

Marilyne Sadowsky as Hugh Ault Fellow at the Institute

Already in May we had the pleasure to welcome Marilyne Sadowsky, Professor of Private Law and Tax Law at the Faculty of Law of the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, as Hugh Ault Fellow at the Institute. She presented her research to us in two major lectures. Sadowsky's research includes the question of the influence of tax policy on climate change mitigation and whether and how the order of international tax law may look in the future. 

Tax policy measures to mitigate climate change

In her first presentation, on May 22, Sadowsky spoke on "Tax Policies to Mitigate Climate Change." In her talk, she presented research findings that she also presented at the XXI General Congress - ASUNCIÓN 2022 of the International Academy of Comparative Law 2022 in Paraguay.

Using an extensive questionnaire, Sadowsky examined tax policies in 30 countries. Analysis of the data shows how difficult it is to meet international and European agreements to mitigate climate change with current tax policies. In particular, the two governmental goals - environmental and climate protection on the one hand and a balanced national budget on the other - are proving difficult to reconcile and have led to a multitude of regulations that do not mesh.

At this point, according to Sadowsky, it seems sensible to rethink tax policy in a very fundamental way and overcome a number of obstacles - political, legal, economic and social - in order to reinvent the existing system through national or global reform.

Taxing the Future

In her second presentation, on May 24, Sadowsky introduced the white paper "taxation / taxing the future," which she helped to coordinate. Commissioned by the ILA (International Law Association) to mark its 150th anniversary in 2023, the white paper looks at the past and present of national tax law and develops the framework for a sustainable global tax law.

Marilyne Sadowsky holds a PhD in International and European Taxation (Sorbonne Law School, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and received an "honorable mention" under the Mitchell B. Carroll Prize of the International Fiscal Association. She is a member of the academic committee of EATLP (European Association of Tax Law Professors) for France. For the ILA (International Law Association), she is coordinator of the White Paper on Taxation for the 150th anniversary of the ILA in 2023.

More information:

The Future of Anti-Poverty Legislation by Ariel Jurow Kleiman, Andrew Hammond, Gabriel Scheffler :: SSRN

ADI-ILA-fiscalite-VHD-EN.pdf (ilaparis2023.org)

Fiscal Policies to Mitigate Climate Change ~ Book ~ Larcier-Intersentia

July 2023