Ivan Ozai is Associate Professor and inaugural Queen’s Faculty Scholar in Tax Law and Policy at Queen’s University Faculty of Law. His research specializes in national, comparative, and international tax law and policy, with a particular focus on tax avoidance, tax competition, global tax justice, and the intersections between taxation, ethics, governance, and international law.

Professor Ozai’s scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, including the University of Toronto Law Journal, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Columbia Journal of Tax Law, British Tax Review, 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), a contributing author of Materials on Canadian Income Tax (Thomson Reuters, 16th ed., forthcoming 2026) and A Practical Guide to Smart Contracts and Blockchain Law (LexisNexis, 3rd ed., forthcoming 2026), and a contributor to several scholarly edited volumes including Tax Justice and Tax Law: Understanding Unfairness in Tax Systems (Hart, 2020) and Comparison of Brazilian and German Tax Systems (Nomos, 2024).

Professor Ozai has received multiple awards for his scholarship, 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 work has twice been shortlisted for the Frans Vanistendael Award for International Tax Law. He has also received research 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.

Professor Ozai has served as Canada’s national reporter 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. 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 and the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal.

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 government positions, 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.

 

Areas of Expertise and Research

  • International Tax Law
  • Tax Policy
  • Comparative Tax Law
  • Global Tax Justice
  • Tax Avoidance
  • Tax Competition