organisation or by an autonomous intergovernmental commission. Tobin proposed that the
proceeds of the tax could be paid to the World Bank or International Monetary Fund which
would, in turn, be responsible for coordinating the administration of the tax at the
international level. The commensurate transfer of sovereignty would have to be based on a
treaty which would have to be ratified by the parliaments of all participant countries. These
are issues that we turn to next.
VI. Issues in International Law and Tax Administration
Whether it is a Tobin tax or a carbon tax or a congestion tax, the ground necessities
in implementing a global tax include an international treaty or treaties and an international
regulatory and administrative framework. Having dealt with Tobin tax related issues above,
in this section we focus mainly on issues related to environment taxes.
1. International law and treaties
International treaty negotiations have reflected two conflicting norms of customary law:
a state’s sovereign right to exploit its own resources and its responsibility to ensure that
damage is not caused to other states. The principle of international liability was developed
in Article 22 of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, sometimes manifesting itself in judgments
against one country to compensate another for environmental damages. But the Convention
on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution of 1979 did not mandate abatement methods or
any specific transboundary reductions in emissions. Since the UN Conference on the Human
Environment, 1982, however, states are also assuming greater obligations to inform and
consult neighbours before undertaking projects with possible wide ranging environmental
ramifications.
Focussing on the atmosphere, the state of international treaty law on the atmosphere—
as opposed to oceans—is still rudimentary (Soroos, 1991). For example, despite scientific
evidence of radioactive fallout from extensive atmospheric nuclear testing and a 1963 treaty
against it, it has taken some countries much longer to move to underground testing. In
matters of warfare, again environmental effects on the atmosphere have not so far been
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