Coordinating the Action of Regional and Global Players during the Shift from Bilateralism to Multilateralism in International Tax Law

The editor introduces this issue of the World Tax Journal with a contribution that welcomes the BEPS project as a significant step in the transition from bilateralism to multilateralism in international taxation. The broad-based consensus and participation in setting the BEPS standards make such project an enhanced form of multilateralism if compared with that which allowed the Global Forum on Fiscal Transparency to implement the standards developed by a more limited number of countries. The contribution of the editor also addresses how global multilateralism relates with regional multilateralism in some areas of the world, such as the European Union, calling for a stronger cooperation among the institutional players within a coordinated framework for the exercise of taxing powers in cross-border situations that could give rise to global international tax law.