On Prohibition of Abuse of Law as a General Principle of EU Law

Abstract

It is now more than a decade since the judgment in Halifax, and nearly two since it was referred to the CJEU by a UK court. It is hard to overstate its significance: the decision is arguably one of the most important ever delivered by the Court within the field of taxation, and beyond. Whilst there seems to be unanimous agreement as regards the existence of the principle, its exact nature is still a contested issue. In particular, the question that still lingers is whether the principle of prohibition of abuse of law should be characterised as a general principle, or as an interpretative principle. This short paper presents the case in favour of characterising the principle of prohibition of abuse of law as a general principle of EU, arguing that not only does it display the key characteristics of such principles but that, following the most recent CJEU decisions, its characterisation as such is now settled case law.