Tilburg University has appointed Dr. Cees Peters as Professor of Tax Law, effective November 1, 2024. Peters specializes in the study of the interactions between tax law and society in general and the relationship with the political system in particular. He is an Associate Professor at the Fiscal Institute Tilburg and has also been Head of the Tax Law Department of Tilburg Law School since January 1, 2024.
In the creation as well as the application of tax law, there is an undesirable gap between citizens and the government.. Therefore, Cees Peters is going to study how citizens can be better involved in the democratic process of creating tax laws.
Peters will also focus on developing principles of tax law because they form a crucial foundation for the normative power of - and thus the support for - the tax system. In addition, his research interests include the role of the institutions of the European and international tax law, including the OECD and the United Nations. International collaboration is fundamental to the sustainability of our tax system, but the European and international tax rules must also be properly democratically guaranteed.
Besides his work on normative issues, Peters also publishes on the development of positive law with a specific focus on European and international tax law, transfer pricing, and taxation on profits in general.
His research contributes to one of the four interdisciplinary research themes of Tilburg Law School: Connecting Responsible Organizations , investigating how the law can play a guiding, supporting, and stimulating role in (technologically driven) activities and organizations to achieve a more equitable and sustainable future.
Peters has taught at Tilburg University for a long time in the fields of European and International tax law and transfer pricing. He collaborates in the EUCOTAX Wintercourse project, that offers a platform to students from twelve different countries to study tax law from a comparative law perspective. Peters teaches about the existing law but, more importantly, seeks to educate his students as critical citizens who can reflect on this tax law. As Head of Department of the Tax Law Department, he has moreover contributed to the innovation of Tilburg University’s fiscal degree programs.
Prof. Geert Vervaeke, decaan van Tilburg Law School:
Cees brings a rich and differentiated experience to our Tax Law Department. He started his career as a tax economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Back at the university, Cees invested his broad skills in many diverse roles and became an example of a multidisciplinary oriented scholar in the field of tax law. It became more and more clear that not only his scientific work and academic citizenship, but also his openness to innovative education, his connected leadership style, and warm hart for FIT (Fiscal institute Tilburg) and the colleagues were highly valued. We are convinced that Cees has the right complex combination of knowledge, skills, and character that are needed to take this next step in his career as Full Professor and FIT’s Head of Department.
Prof. Cees Peters is an Associate Professor at the Fiscal Institute Tilburg of Tilburg University. Since January 1, 2024, he has been Head of Department at the Tax Law Department. He wrote his PhD thesis on the legitimacy of international tax law and studies tax law in relation to deliberative democracy, among other perspectives. Peters started his career at PwC in 2000 and has worked exclusively at Tilburg University since 2009. His multidisciplinary work was awarded the prestigious 2019 Jaap van den Berge Literature Award for his contribution to the development of tax law in the Netherlands.
