Likhovski on Tax Law in Mandatory Palestine and Israel

Just out with Cambridge University Press is Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel by Assaf Likhovski, Tel Aviv University. The book is part of the ASLH “Studies in Legal History” series. From the publisher:

This book describes how a social-norms model of taxation rose and fell in British-ruled Palestine and the State of Israel in the mid-twentieth century. Such a model, in which non-legal means were used to foster compliance, appeared in the tax system created by the Jewish community in 1940s Palestine and was later adopted by the new Israeli state in the 1950s. It gradually disappeared in subsequent decades as law and its agents, lawyers and accountants, came to play a larger role in the process of taxation. By describing the historical interplay between formal and informal tools for creating compliance, Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel sheds new light on our understanding of the relationship between law and other methods of social control, and reveals the complex links between taxation and citizenship.

Praise for the book:

“This brilliant book tells the story of how tax law in Mandatory Palestine was transformed from an intimate institution relying on the voluntary cooperation of taxpayers to a formal system enforced by lawyers. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the nature of law and in how to make a legal system that necessarily depends on voluntary cooperation achieve its goals.” Reuven Avi-Yonah

TOC after the jump.

Introduction: the intimate fiscal state

Part I. The Rise of Income Taxation:

1. Before the income tax: Jewish Ottoman, and early mandatory taxation

2. The introduction of income taxation in mandatory Palestine

Part II. The Ascendancy of Social Norms:

3. Taxation without law: the Jewish voluntary tax system

4. Law and social norms in early Israeli taxation

Part III. The Transformation of Israeli Taxation and its Law:

5. The rise of tax experts: accountants, lawyers, and economists

6. The transformation of tax law: doctrinal and legislative changes.

You can read more in "Forgotten Lives and Universal Lessons," a blogpost by the author on CUP's fifteen eightyfour blog.

Further information about the book is available here.