Ivan Ozai is Associate Professor and the inaugural Queen’s Faculty Scholar in Tax Law and Policy at Queen’s University Faculty of Law. He specializes in national, comparative, and international tax law and policy, focusing particularly on tax avoidance, tax competition, global tax justice, and the intersections of taxation, ethics, governance, and international law.
Professor Ozai’s scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, including the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Columbia Journal of Tax Law, British Tax Review, University of Toronto Law Journal, Fordham International Law Journal, and the Journal of International Economic Law. He is also the author of Tax Expenditures and the Value-Added Tax (2019, in Portuguese), and has contributed to several edited volumes such as Tax Justice and Tax Law: Understanding Unfairness in Tax Systems (Hart, 2020) and Comparison of Brazilian and German Tax Systems (Nomos, 2024).
His work has received multiple awards, including the IFA USA Writing Award from the International Fiscal Association and the Prix Relève étoile Paul-Gérin-Lajoie from the Government of Quebec. His research has also received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Fonds de Recherche du Québec, Société et Culture (FRQSC), and the Canadian branch of the International Fiscal Association (IFA).
Prior to joining Queen’s, Professor Ozai taught at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, where he served as convenor of the JD Tax Law Program and received the 2023 Osgoode Hall Law School Teaching Award for full-time faculty. He also taught in the LLM programs in Taxation Law and Canadian Common Law.
He earned his doctorate in law (D.C.L.) from McGill University’s Faculty of Law as a Tomlinson Doctoral Fellow and has held visiting fellowships at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo and the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal. He has served as the national reporter for Canada to the International Fiscal Association and currently sits on the Council of its Canadian branch. He is also a member of the Committee on International Tax Law of the International Law Association.
Before entering academia, Professor Ozai practised tax law for over a decade in São Paulo. He also served as a tax court judge and held senior roles in government, including as Director of the Advance Tax Rulings Office for the State of São Paulo. He is called to the Bars of Ontario and São Paulo.
Professor Ozai is the founding convenor of the Queen’s Colloquium on Tax Law and Policy.
Selected Publications
For a complete list of publications, please consult Professor Ozai’s website.
Law Review Articles
- “Beyond Economic Allegiance” (forthcoming 2025), University of Toronto Law Journal (peer-reviewed).
- “Global Justice in the Reshaping of International Tax” (2024) 27:4 Journal of International Economic Law, pp. 639-45 (peer-reviewed).
- “Judicial Line-Drawing and Implications for Tax Avoidance” (2023) 71:4 Canadian Tax Journal, pp. 1053-68 (peer-reviewed).
- “Designing an Equitable Border Carbon Adjustment Mechanism” (2022) 70:1 Canadian Tax Journal, pp. 1-33 (peer-reviewed), shortlisted for the 9th IBFD Frans Vanistendael Award by the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation.
- “Origin and Differentiation in International Income Allocation” (2021) 44:1 Dalhousie Law Journal, pp. 129-150 (peer-reviewed).
- “An Alternative Unified Approach to Global Tax Policy: Addressing the Challenges of Underdevelopment” (2021) 4:1 Nordic Journal on Law and Society, pp. 1-31, with Tarcísio Diniz Magalhães (peer-reviewed).
- “Inter-nation Equity Revisited” (2020) 12:1 Columbia Journal of Tax Law, pp. 58-88.
- “Two Accounts of International Tax Justice” (2020) 33:2 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, pp. 317-339 (peer-reviewed).
- “Institutional and Structural Legitimacy Deficits in the International Tax Regime” (2019) 12:1 World Tax Journal, pp. 53-78 (peer-reviewed).
- “Tax Competition and the Ethics of Burden Sharing” (2018) 42:1 Fordham International Law Journal, pp. 61-100, awarded first place in the IFA USA Writing Award.
Links
Areas of Expertise and Research
- Taxation Law
- Tax Policy
- Global Tax Justice
- Tax Competition