Epieikeia or “Better Justice”: Formalism in Tax Law Revisited

Abstract

For Aristotle, “the essence what is equitable is that it is an amendment of the law, in those points where is fails through the generality of its language”. The application of legal rules produces appropriate (just) results in the majority of cases, but not in all. When its application would lead to injustice, a legal rule can be defeated by equity.

Keywords

• equity
• justice
• tax law
• alternative dispute resolution
• tax disputes