Danet, Didier --- "From fiscal competition to juridical competition. Lessons from the French experience" [2003] ELECD 73; in Marciano, Alain; Josselin, Jean-Michel (eds), "From Economic to Legal Competition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003)

Book Title: From Economic to Legal Competition

Editor(s): Marciano, Alain; Josselin, Jean-Michel

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843760061

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: From fiscal competition to juridical competition. Lessons from the French experience

Author(s): Danet, Didier

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

9. From fiscal competition to juridical
competition. Lessons from the French
experience
Didier Danet

INTRODUCTION
The growing opening of markets and economies has given rise to a fiscal
competition which is usually considered as potentially damaging (Marini,
1998, OCDE, 1998; Owens, 1999). The drawback is well-known: many
reports, books or papers describe harmful practices and suggest solutions in
order to avoid the consequences of `fiscal wars'.218
Competition between legal systems has its origins in the same tendencies.
Fiscal competition and legal competition are moreover related to each other:
countries which try to divert investments, registered offices etc. usually reduce
taxes concerning corporates, salaried staff, accounting etc. Its impact is also of
great importance even if it is more complicated and less visible. There is less
literature analysing legal competition in France, and the literature that exists
tends to underestimate the fact that legal competition exists in France or
assumes that there is no competition.
The first purpose of this chapter relates to the definition and typology of
juridical competition (section 1) With regard to this typology, the chapter aims
to describe the extent and the intensity of the competition which does exist in
the French legal system (section 2). Then, as far as private rules can widely
compete with public rules in this system, the chapter tries to explain why
private rules, usually considered more suitable and less expensive, do not fully
supplant public rules (section 3).


1. A TYPOLOGY OF COMPETITION
According to such a distinguished scholar ...