A decade of promoting and developing customs legal knowledge
On October 25th, as has been a tradition for a decade and without interruption, the Faculty of Law of the University of Buenos Aires is proud to celebrate the 26th Customs Law Conference, an activity conceived and put into practice by the genius and primary effort of Dr. Catalina García Vizcaíno and, since its inception on October 2015th, XNUMX, has been bringing together distinguished jurists, professors, academics, customs agents and technicians of the regulations that pertain to foreign trade, who together with undergraduate and graduate students, teachers and the general public, gather to update themselves on new topics and review those of permanent interest.
I.- Background: the Customs Law Commission
As for its origins, we must go back to December 9, 2014, when the Center for Studies in Financial Law and Tax Law of the Department of Business Economic Law of the Faculty of Law - UBA, chaired at that time by Dr. José Osvaldo Casás, accompanied by Drs. Rodolfo Spisso, Jorge Damarco, Gustavo Naveira de Casanova, Horacio Corti, Agustín Torres and Pablo Revilla, decided (as recorded in Minutes No. 32 on folio 114/115 of Minutes Book No. 1), the birth of the Customs Law Commission.
Dr. Casás then proposed its formation “with the purpose of promoting and encouraging the study, research and improvement in this branch of Tax Law, taking into account the participation of professors and specialists from the country, but also from abroad, while recommending the organization of activities or conferences.".
To this end, it was suggested that the presidency “…due to her background and extensive experience in this field, the position of Dr. Catalina García Vizcaíno (Regular Professor of Public Finance and Tax Law at this Faculty)…”, and various professors and personalities were proposed as members; among whom we find Drs.
II.- Beginnings: the first days
Once the Customs Law Commission was organized, Dr. Vizcaíno was constantly and tirelessly in charge of convening those who would participate in those meetings in the Blue Room year after year. Initially, these were in person and with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, they became virtual, and finally, currently, they have acquired a hybrid format (in person and with live broadcast).
The new scheme allows for greater dissemination, especially for those who live in the interior of the country and for those who, being close by, find it difficult - due to their daily occupations - to travel to the University, but very especially, it enables those interested from other countries who wish to be updated on what is being discussed in Argentina. Interest increased by the permanent participation of invited jurists from abroad, such as in these X Conferences occurs with colleagues from Brazil and Uruguay.
A brief review of the meetings already held allows us to visualize the multiplicity of topics addressed and the relevance of their content:
2015 – I Customs Law Conference
- Right to due process in customs
- Transfer pricing and customs value. Tax, customs, exchange and criminal problems
- Art. 20 of Law 23.905 and the exchange rate of the taxable moment of the Customs Code and the customs valuation
- Consequences for Argentina of the approval of the International Convention for the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (modified), signed in Kyoto on 18/05/1973
- New forms of smuggling and its prevention
2016 – II Customs Law Conference
- Procedures for the investigation and fight against drug trafficking
- Customs violations
- Customs procedures. Customs control
- Export
2017 – III Customs Law Conference
- International aspects
- Customs offences
- Procedures and their implications
- Tax and operational issues
2018 – IV Customs Law Conference
- Customs principles and duties
- Customs violations and crimes
- customs procedures
2019 – Fifth Conference: Tribute to the memory of professor emeritus José Osvaldo Casás
- Impact of international treaties and constitutional law
- Operational and jurisdictional procedures
2020 – VI Conference: Tribute to the 60th anniversary of the National Tax Court
- Tribute to the 60th anniversary of the National Tax Court
- Customs Administration. Imports and Exports
- Illicit. Exchange control
- Integration Law
2021 – VII Conference: Tribute to the University of Buenos Aires on the bicentennial of its foundation
- Customs and international trade
- Digital Services
- Illicit acts and customs procedures
- Customs Law in particular
2022 – VIII Conference: Seventy-five years after the GATT of 1947
- General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and its current implications
- customs procedures
- Customs offences. Customs tax obligation
2023 – IX Conference: Sixty years after the customs jurisdiction of the National Tax Court
- 60 years after the jurisdiction of the National Tax Court
- Customs Offenses
- customs procedures
The opening conferences were initially given by Dr. José Osvaldo Casás and Dr. Catalina García Vizcaíno, and later by Drs. Marcelo Gebhardt, Horacio Corti, Rubén Marchevsky and Silvia Nonna.
In addition to the academic members of both Committees mentioned above, the Conference has been distinguished by the presentations of such personalities as Drs. Mario Bibiloni, Juan Martin Jovanovich, Ana Sumchesky, Gustavo Zunino, Lorena Bartomioli, Pablo Garbarino, Alejandro Perotti, Fernando Schettini, Ricardo Pretel Bru, Juan Frers, Andres Varela, Maria Gottifredi, Miguel Nathan Licht, Maria Noel Lascano, Rufino Veccar Varela, Claudia Marinelli, Hector Juarez Allende, Fernando Milano, Christian Gonzalez Palazzo, Maria Elsa Coronel, Stella Maris Ruiz, Carolina Robiglio, Facundo Sarrabayrouse and Flavia Figueredo.
It is worth remembering the permanent collaboration as moderators of Drs. Carolina Petraglia, Silvia Guadalupe Catinot, Juan Marcos Rougés, María Belén Zurro, Alejandro Grosso Grazioli, Miguel Ángel Vidal, Guillermo Gehrt, Laura Velo and Natalia Poggio Acevedo.
III.- Expansion: digitalization of content
Fortunately, since 2022, the various exhibitions held during these days have been devoted to the “Debates on Tax and Financial Law Magazine", a university publication directed by Drs. Horacio Corti (Director), Pablo Revilla (Deputy Director), Fabiana Schafrik, Gladys Vidal, Horacio Cardozo, Patricio Urresti and Juan Manuel Álvarez Echagüe (members of the Editorial Board).
The Debates Magazine is a digital edition, whose copies are freely and openly available to the academic community (http://www.derecho.uba.ar/institucional/centro-estudios-der-tributario/revista-debates-de-derecho-tributario-y-financiero.php). Among the issues dedicated to customs issues we find numbers 3/2022 – Year II; 6/2023 – Year III and 12/2024 – Year IV.
IV.- Present and future
On this new occasion, we complete this 10-year cycle of dissemination of this branch of the Science of Law with the participation - in addition to those already mentioned - in different roles, of Drs. Raquel Segalla Reis, Juan Manuel Francia, Claudio A. Gonçálvez Pereira, Pablo González Bianchi, Fernando Pieri, Guillermo Felipe Coronel, Eduardo Laguzzi and Lucía López Parga.
We would like to express our gratitude to each and every one of them for their unconditional support of time and effort invested in the development, deepening, systematization and expansion of the Science of Customs Law, both in Argentina and abroad.
For many more years of shared work! We look forward to seeing you!
- Registration for Customs Law Conference 2024:
- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiEQf9Mo4YYaI1LP3VQxBYFSaANLMou-J929jMGYeCbLhz_g/viewform
He is a lawyer and public auctioneer. He currently works as Secretary of the Federal Civil, Commercial and Administrative Litigation Prosecutor's Office No. 7.
He obtained the degrees of Master in Public Finance (at UNLaM, in 2012) and Master in Magistracy (at UBA, in 2014).
He is a Specialist in Tax Law (from the UBA, in 2002), in Customs Law (from the UBA, in 2012) and in Administrative Law (from the UNLaM in 2020).
He is a professor of undergraduate and graduate studies at various universities in the area (UBA Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences; National University of La Plata, National University of Salta, National University of La Pampa, National Technological University, Argentina de la Empresa, Inter-American Open University, Belgrano, Catholic University of Santiago del Estero, among others.
Lecturer and author of numerous articles in legal journals.
