Third-Country Relations with the European Community: A Growing Snowball

The dissertation focuses on the development of the European Court of Justice's (ECJ's) jurisprudence in creating a legal doctrine applicable to European Union (EU) and non-EU members, when operating capital transactions to, from and within the Community. The main focus of the thesis is in the formulation of a policy that would reconcile the Member States' need to protect their economies against the free inflow and outflow of capital resources while upholding one of the European Community (EC) Treaty's main principles: the free circulation of capital. The article points out to the dilemma faced by the Court of Justice when deciding on direct tax cases: how to secure a coherent interpretation of the freedoms, including that of free movement of capital, while protecting Member States' tax jurisdictions from the free inflow and outflow of capitals from third countries?