Taxation shapes how wealth is created, distributed, and governed, yet many of the actors who influence tax policy operate beyond the public spotlight. This conference explores the role of tax law professionals – civil servants, judges, academics, and lawyers – in shaping legislation, translating political decisions into economic practice, and mediating between public authority and private interests.
Bringing together researchers from the TAXLAW project and scholars in related field, the conference presents new findings from a comparative study of tax law professionals in France and Norway.
Through presentations, a public lecture by Professor Brooke Harrington (Dartmouth College), and a concluding panel discussion, participants will examine how political, economic, and expert power interact in the governance of resources in contemporary societies.
The conference offers new perspectives on the authority of expertise, the evolving relationship between states and markets, and the social dynamics that shape tax systems.
The conference is open to all. Sign up via our registration form above.
Read more about the conference and the TAXLAW project (uni.oslomet.no)
Programme
- 09:00-09:15 - Welcome and coffee
- 09:15-09:30 - Introduction: Tax Law Professionals – A Prism for Studying the Relationship between Economic, Political and Expert Power, Marte Mangset (University of Oslo and PI of the TAXLAW project)
- 09:30-10:30 - Political, economic and expert power
- Symbolic victory, material constraint. A study of power relations between experts, politicians and business in the co-construction of fish farming taxation, Oskar Grannæs Olsen (University of Oslo) & Helle Dyrendahl Staven (OsloMet)
- What is a good tax system? The institutional embeddedness of expert definitions, Marte Mangset (University of Oslo)
- Discussant: Marte Lund Saga (University of Oslo)
- 10:30-10:45 - Break
- 10:45-12:00 - Public lecture: The Polycrisis—Offshore Finance and Kleptocracy, Brooke Harrington (Darthmouth College)
- 12:00-12:45 - Lunch
- 12:45-13:45 - Transformation of the public-private interface?
- How elite mobility reframe what counts as legitimate tax practice, Helle Dyrendahl Staven (OsloMet)
- The asymmetrical negotiation of legal uncertainty: neutral places in taxation law, Jérôme Pélisse (Sciences Po Paris)
- Challenging the State’s expert authority, Marte Mangset (University of Oslo)
- Discussant: Sigurd M. Nordli Oppegaard (Fafo Research Foundation)
- 13:45-14:00 - Break
- 14:00-15:00 - Panel discussion: Fiscal sociology as a prism for studying power, with Brooke Harrington (Darthmouth College), Marte Mangset (University of Oslo), Ola Innset (University of Oslo). Chair: Helle Dyrendahl Staven (OsloMet)
- 15:00-15:15 - Closing remarks, Marte Mangset (University of Oslo and PI of the TAXLAW project)
