Anti-Avoidance Principles Under Domestic and EU Law.

In this article, based on lectures delivered before judgment was given in the case o/UBS AG v HMRC and DB Group Services (UK) Ltd v HMRC (UBS and DB), Lord Reed considers the judicial approaches to tax avoidance adopted in UK andEU law. In relation to the UK case law concerning avoidance schemes, the article suggests that explanations of the court's approach to the facts in terms of "realism " are less useful than an approach based on the idea that the court's analysis of the facts is driven by a purposive construction of the legislation in question: fiscal legislation usually (but not always) being concerned with transactions having some practical purpose other than tax avoidance. In relation to EU law, the article discusses the concept of abuse of law, and considers criticisms of the Supreme Court s judgment in HMRC v Pendragon pic (Pendragon). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]