Faculty directory

Martha O'Brien

B.A. (UVic) 1980, LL.B. (UVic) 1984, LL.M. (Université Libre de Bruxelles) 1992, called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1986.

Professor O'Brien joined the Faculty of Law in 2000 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006 and Professor in 2011. She served as a law clerk to Mr. Justice McIntyre at the Supreme Court of Canada from 1984 to 1985, and then articled and practiced civil litigation in Vancouver from 1985 to 1990. After completing her LL.M. in Law of the European Union in Brussels, Professor O'Brien practiced Canadian and international tax law with national accounting and law firms in Vancouver. Her academic research and writing is focused on Canadian and international taxation, as well as the law of the European Union.

Professor O'Brien teaches Taxation, Corporate Tax, International Tax, Law of the European Union, and Business Associations. She also contributes to a European Studies course, EUS 300 European Integration: Socio-Economic and Political Developments.

Martha O'Brien
Faculty of Law, University of Victoria
PO Box 1700, STN CSC
Victoria, BC, V8W 2Y2
Canada

Email: Martha O'Brien
Fax: 250-721-8146
Tel: 250-721-8165

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Courses

Business Associations - 315
Taxation - 345
Advanced Taxation: Corporations - 346A
Advanced Taxation: International Taxation - 346B
Law of the European Union - 374

Publications

Recent and representative publications

“Direct taxation, tax treaties and international investment agreements: Mixed objectives, mixed results”, to be published as a book chapter in a collection of articles on legal and interdisciplinary aspects of international investment agreements by Routledge, 2011 (with Kim Brooks, Schulich School of Law).

“Substantive Impact of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on Income Taxation”, to be published as a book chapter in “Taxation and Human Rights in Europe and the World” by the Group of Researchers on European and International Taxation (“GREIT”), forthcoming, 2011.

National Report for Canada, “The Impact of the OECD and the UN Model Conventions on Bilateral Tax Treaties,” for a conference held at Rust, Austria, July 8-10 2010 by the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (with Catherine Brown, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary), forthcoming as a book chapter to be published by Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Case Annotation, Case C-326/07, Commission of the European Communities v. Italian Republic, (Golden Shares) judgment of the Court of Justice (Third Chamber) of 26 March 2009, nyr., (2010), CML Rev. 47 245-261.

Country report for Canada, Chapter 2.3, in Dourado (ed.) Separation of Powers in Tax Law, 2010 European Association of Tax Law Professors EATLP International Tax Series Volume 7.

“Canada, Capital Movements and the European Union: Some Tax Implications”, (2009) vol. 57, no. 2 Canadian Tax Journal, 259-291. Republished by Routledge, 2011, in revised form, in Kurt Hübner (ed.), Europe, Canada and the Comprehensive Economic Partnership in connection with Canada-Europe Transatlantic Dialogue Thematic Research Group Three: Economic Cooperation, Competition and International Law.)

“The hypothetical (or mythical) particular shareholder is at last revealed”, Sedona Networks Corporation v. The Queen 2006 TCC 80; 2007 FCA 169; Current Cases feature, (2008), vol. 56, no. 3 719-726 Canadian Tax Journal.

"Pan-Euro-Med Diagonal Cumulation: Can it make a difference to the achievement of the goals of the European Neighbourhood Policy in the Mediterranean Region?", 2009 Vol. 2/3 Current Politics and Economics of Europe, Nova Publishers, New York.

"Taxation and the Third Country Dimension of Free Movement of Capital in EU Law: the ECJ's rulings and the unresolved issues", [2008] 6 British Tax Review 628-666.

Case Annotation: "Case C-452/04, Fidium Finanz AG v. Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht , judgment of the Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) of 3 October 2006, [2006] ECR I-9521," (2007), CML Rev. 44, 1483-99.

National Report for Canada in Michael Lang et al. (eds.) The EU and Third Countries: Direct Taxation, (Vienna: Linde Verlag/Kluwer Law 2007) (with Catherine Brown).

"Surrogatum , Source and Tsiaprailis : is there a principled basis for the tax treatment of replacement payments?" (2006) vol. 54 no. 4 Canadian Tax Journal 862-906.

"Company Taxation, State Aid and Fundamental Freedoms: Is the Next Step Enhanced Co-operation?" (2005) E.L.Rev. 209-233.

"Investment Income and Indian Reserves: The Disconnecting Factor", (Case comment on Sero v. The Queen and Frazer v. The Queen ) Current Cases Feature, (2004), Vol. 52, No. 2, Canadian Tax Journal 543-548.

"Income Tax, Investment Income and the Indian Act: Getting Back on Track", (2002), Vol. 50, No. 5, Canadian Tax Journal 1570-1596.

"International Corporate Structures and the New Protocol to the Canada-US Income Tax Convention", The Advocate, Vol. 54, Part 1 January 1996, 43-56. (Limitation on Benefits Rules)

Research

Current projects

Professor O’Brien’s current research relates to international taxation and direct investment, and discrimination and double taxation in the European Union (EU), including the use of arbitration to prevent double taxation both in the EU and in the Canada-US context. She is also pursuing research to compare the objectives, methods and policy concerns of the recent proposal by Canada’s government for corporate group consolidated taxation with the new proposal of the European Commission for a common consolidated corporate tax base in the EU.