A group of high level researchers with high specialization in custom, tax and European studies. An International Scientific Commitee with High Profile Members.
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor in Tax Law at University of Bologna since 2021. His research interests centre on changes in taxation resulting from membership of the European Union, and from the international community. His current focus is on the study of inspection powers of the tax authorities, in particular with reference to the extraterritorial exercise of tax inspection powers and Customs controls relating to the value of imports.
National Rapporteur for Italy
Federico Tarini graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Bologna cum laude in May 2017.
He is a Ph.D. in European Tax law at the University of Bologna.
He is a member of the editorial staff of Trusts & Attività Fiduciarie, since 2021.
His main topics of interest center around the taxation of movement of income and capital both within and outside the EU zone /with a particular focus on the movements on dividends and the transfer of tax residence).
The current research topic is the relationship between transfer pricing and customs valuation.
Member of the Scientific Board of ECCE - Spain
Prof. Dr. Santiago Ibáñez Marsilla (Universidad de Valencia, Spain) directs the Jean Monnet Chair “EU Customs law”, granted by the European Commission. He directs a post-graduate online course on EU customs law <https://www.uv.es/aduanas> and regularly teaches in several foreign postgraduate customs programs.
Founding Member of the International Customs Law Academy (ICLA) and member of the editorial board of the World Customs Journal, he has authored more than 80 academic publications. He administers the LinkedIn group “Derecho aduanero” <https://www.linkedin.com/groups/3719717/>, with more than 13.000 members worldwide, and the website <https://www.derechoaduanero.com>.
National Rapporteur for Spain
PhD in Law, with international mention, (University of Valencia), MPhil (Open University of Spain), LLM & LLB (University of Valencia) Bachelor (Hons) in Business Administration (University of Wolverhampton), Lawyer (Bar of Valencia) and Economist (Association of Economists of Valencia). His thesis obtained the Financial and Tax Law Award, "Fernando Sainz de Bujanda".
Jorge is lecturer of Taxation and Finance at the University of Valencia, the European University and the Catholic University of Valencia. He has been a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) of the Queen Mary University of London, Visiting Lecturer at the Cork Institute of Technology (Ireland) and Thesis Reviewer of the "Chartered Institute of Taxation" (United Kingdom). He supervises LLM and LLB dissertations in his field of expertise.
Former director of the Master's Degree in Administrative Management and director of the Postgraduate and Academic Quality Office of the Catholic University of Valencia, currently directs the Master in Administrative Management of the European University. He also regularly participates in congresses and seminars on International Taxation.
Member of the Scientific Board of ECCE - the Netherland
Walter de Wit is Professor of International and European Customs Law at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, he is the Program director for the Master Indirect Taxation, Coordinator of Executive Master program in Customs and Supply Chain Compliance at Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) and Program Director European Fiscal Studies (EFS) Post Master EU Customs Law. He is also an Indirect Tax – Global Trade Partner at Ernst & Young. From 2003-2007 he was Advocate-General with the Dutch Supreme Court.
National Rapporteur for the Netherland
Martijn L. Schippers (1990) is an Assistant Professor specialized in EU Customs Law, program coordinator of the prestigious Post-Master in EU Customs Law of EFS, Erasmus University Rotterdam and member of EY's Global Trade & Customs team. He obtained a LL.M degree in Tax Law and a LL.M degree in Company Law from the Erasmus School of Law (ESL) in 2014 and a Post-Master degree in EU Customs Law in 2016 from EFS, Erasmus University Rotterdam. In 2021 he obtained a PhD in customs valuation in a globalized world from the ESL. He publishes frequently about customs and indirect taxes in Dutch and international journals and took part in IBFD's international research on Special Tax Zones. Besides publishing extensively, he was one of the founding fathers of the Indirect Tax master program and he currently coordinates and teaches several courses within that program. He also gives guest lectures at the universities of Maastricht, Curaçao, Antwerp and Lund, IBFD, NOB and PE Academy.
Member of the Scientific Board of ECCE - Germany
Prof. Dr. Hans- Michael Wolffgang is a professor of international trade and tax law and director of the Institute of Customs and International Trade Law (ICTL) at the University of Münster, Germany.
In co-operation with the University of Münster the ICTL offers the Master of Customs Administration program for strategic managers of both public and private sector in English language.
Prof. Wolffgang is founder and partner of the AWB Tax Consultancy Ltd., and founder of the AWB Law Firm Ltd, both based in Münster, Hamburg and Munich, Germany.
Prof. Wolffgang is a board member of Centre of International Trade Law at the University of Münster and chairman of the advisory board of the EFA European Forum for External Trade, Excise and Customs. He also is Editor-in-Chief of the AW-Prax, a leading journal of external trade and customs law in German-speaking countries.
Prof. Wolffgang is co-founder of the International Network of Customs Universities (INCU) and member of the editorial board of the World Customs Journal (WCJ).
He has lectured and presented internationally and written extensively on international trade law, customs law and export control law.
National Rapporteur for Germany
Benedikt Wemmer (1990) is a Senior Researcher in the field of EU Customs law at the Institute of Customs and International Trade Law (University of Muenster) in Germany.
He has a German law degree from the University of Muenster (Diplom-Jurist). He also successfully completed a dual course of study in the German federal finance administration (Diplom-Finanzwirt).
Mr. Wemmer worked for 7 years as a customs officer in the German customs administration (most recently at the Central Customs Authority in the risk management department). Since 2016 he has been working as consultant (customs and foreign trade law) at AWB Tax Consultancy Ltd, Muenster.
He teaches customs law and constitutional law as a visiting lecturer at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences. Furthermore, Mr. Wemmer trains customs departments of companies for the AWA Foreign Trade Academy in Germany.
He regularly publishes articles on customs and tax law.
Staff Member - Criminal Procedural Law Issues of Custom Frauds
He teaches at Bologna University, Schoolof Law Criminal Procedure and European and International Criminal Procedure. He is in the scientific board of the PhD course in Juridical Sciences the University of Bologna.
He has been co-leader of the OLAF project on “Criminal and administrative investigations in the field of VAT and Custom Duties, from national practices to an EU integrated system of information and Evidence Exchange”, and of the Olaf project on "Investigations and Sanctions for VAT frauds: Fundamental Principles and Comparison across EU Member States” in the frame of the Hercule III program".
He is taking part to the project Hercules III Program DEVICES (Digital forensic EVIdence: towards CommonEuropean Standards in antifraud administrative and criminal investigations. — DEVICES).
He is Principal Investigator nel progetto di ricerca (UST-JACC-AG-2018 Program) CrossJustice (Knowledge, Advisory and Capacity Building Information Tool for Criminal Procedural Rights in Judicial Cooperation).
Together with the University of North Carolina, the University of Warwick and the University of Basel he created a research network on criminal justice – The Future of Adversarial and Inquisitorial Systems. The network organizes every year a Conference on relevant issues on criminal justice under a comparative perspective (for further information see the website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/research/cjc/conferences/conferences/adversarial/).
Since May 2018he is Head of the Department of Legal Studies.
EU Law - Interplays between International and European Custom Law
Federico Casolari is Associate professor of European Union Law at the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, where he teaches EU law and EU Constitutional Law. He currently serves as member of the Flying Faculty of the China-EU School of Law (CESL). He is also member of the International Research Centre on European Law (C.I.R.D.E.) of the University of Bologna and tutor at the Collegio Superiore of the University of Bologna (2016-2022). He is Director of the Master Programme in European Funds and Funding Projects Expert (MEFFE).
On 3 May 2018 he has been appointed Deputy Head of the Department of Legal Studies of the University of Bologna (2018-2021).
Member of the University Senate (2021-2024) as representative of the Social Area.
Federico Casolari’s current research agenda includes:
Philosophy of Law - Legal Aspects of Theseus Data
Antonino is professor of philosophy of law and currently vice-rector for research at the University of Bologna. He is an international expert in legal theory, legal logic, deontic logic, formal methods for practical reasoning, and theoretical artificial intelligence and law. In these areas Antonino Rotolo has carried out research projects at the international, European, and national levels. He has been visiting scholar at King's College London and at the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology (Australia).
Antonino Rotolo's research interests include Logics for Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence and Law, Philosophical Logic, Normative Reasoning, Non-Classical Logics, Non-Monotonic Reasoning, and the Foundations of Practical Reason, Legal Informatics.
Member of the Scientific Board of ECCE - Italy
Full professor at the University of Bologna since 2011. Mainly topics of research have been procedural and processual ones. Actual researches are developing on the topic of taxation of web economy. Member of national and international projects. He has published several works; he is editorialist for the main economic newspapers.
Tax Law - Proportionality of Custom Sanctions
Associate Professor of Tax Law at the University of Bologna since 2014. He obtained a Phd in European Tax Law in 2004 and was a Researcher in Tax Law at the same University from 2005 to 2014.
He currently carries out teaching and research activities at the Department of Legal Sciences of Jurisprudence, where he teaches Labor Tax Law and Public Finance Law (Bologna and Ravenna offices). He was professor of the II level University Master in Tax Law "A. Berliri" from 2006 to 2017 and Co-ordinator of the PhD course in European Tax Law since 2016. Since 2008 he has also had annual teaching assignments in tax matters at the course of Degree in Business Administration and Management at the School of Economics, Management and Statistics, Rimini branch of Unibo.
He wrote monographic publications and several articles about Tax Law issues on scientific journals. His main research interests concern European tax integration, with particular regard to the study of Value Added Tax, the European principles of tax law, Administrative Tax Sanctions, Family taxation, local taxation and fiscal federalism, legal aspects of the organization and management of public finance.
Tax Law - Tax Procedures Issues of Custom Frauds
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In 1997 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Bologna cum laude.
In 2001 he obtained the qualification to practice as a lawyer;
In 2002 he obtained the title of Doctor of Research (PhD) in Tax Law at the University of Rome "La Sapienza";
In November 2001 he joined the Faculty of Economics, University of Urbino, as Researcher of Tax Law;
In November 2013 he became Associate Professor of Tax Law at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo;
In December 2014 he became Full Professor of Tax Law at the Department of Law, University of Urbino;
In April 2016 he became Full Professor of Tax Law at the Department of Legal Sciences of the University of Bologna.
He is member of the Teaching Board of the PhD in European Tax Law, University of Bologna, since 2009;
He is a member of the Commission of Tax Studies of the Association "Il Trust in Italia" since April 2014;
He is a member of the Scientific Board of the Review Trusts & Attività Fiduciarie, since 2017:
Since 2019 he is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Legal Library A. Cicu of the University of Bologna;
Since 2019 He is co-Director of the Review "Diritto e Processo Tributario".
Rezarta Tahiraj is Associate Professor at the University of Elbasan “Aleksandër Xhuvani” in Albania, where she teaches Tax Law, European Tax Law, Financial Law, International Financial Law and Business Law. She currently is Director of Scientific Research Center for Researches and Developments in Law and Economy in the Faculty of Economy at the University of Elbasan. On 16 Juin 2016 she has been nominated Director of the Department of Law in the Faculty of Economy at the University of Elbasan (2016-2020). From September 2020 she is Member of Academic Senate of the University of Elbasan.
The current research interests of Rezarta Tahiraj include:
The aggressive tax planning in the Member States of the European Union and in the Balkan States;
The cyber tax crimes in the Balkan States;
The global digital tax human rights;
The harmonization and coordination of legal rules on customs controls in Balkan States and within the European Union.