General anti-avoidance rules and the rule of law

This chapter opens the Companion section on general anti-avoidance rules (GAARs). Rebecca Prebble and John Prebble discuss the apparent conflict between GAARs and the broadly accepted values commonly referred to as the rule of law. GAARs violate the certainty principle embedded in the rule of law since their scope is inherently not well defined. The chapter examines the underlying values of the rule of law and argues that the very nature of the problem of impermissible tax avoidance warrants the departure from the rule of law, and that this departure does not weaken the rule of law but rather advances its importance.