Professor Dominic de Cogan

Biography

Dominic de Cogan is a Professor of Tax and Public Law.  He was previously a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at Birmingham Law School (to 2014), a PhD candidate at Downing College, Cambridge (to 2011) and a Tax Consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Cambridge, Birmingham and London (to 2008).

Dominic’s research interests focus on the interactions of tax law and government both in the present day and in historical context.  His monograph Tax Law, State-building and the Constitution was published by Hart Publishing in 2020 and was awarded the Second Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship in 2022. He has also co-edited a number of books including Landmark Cases in Revenue Law with Dr John Snape, Tax Justice and Tax Law and several volumes of Studies in the History of Tax Law with Professor Peter Harris.

Dominic is the Assistant Director of the Centre for Tax Law and is also the Deputy UK representative at the European Association of Tax Law Professors, a Director of the Tax Research Network, founding editor with Dr Sara Closs-Davies of the Tax Research Network Blog and a member of the Tax Law Review Committee.  He runs a biennial tax policy conference in Cambridge and provides Faculty support for the Cambridge Tax Discussion Group.

Dominic teaches Tax Law, Administrative Law, Law of Succession, Constitutional Law, and Equity.  Outside work, Dominic is a keen amateur musician and father to a high-energy daughter.

Selected publications

2025: Dominic de Cogan, Alexis Brassey and May Hen 'The Rule of Law and Taxation' in de Cogan, Brassey and Hen (eds), Tax, Public Finance, and the Rule of Law (Oxford, Hart, 2025).

2025: Donard de Cogan and Dominic de Cogan, 'Some interactions in the industrial development of Dublin', submitted for publication April 2025

2025: 'A kaleidoscope of tax philosophy' in Diana van Hout, Cees Peters and Sonja Dusarduijn (eds), Gribnau bundel: Opstellen aangeboden an prof. mr. dr. J.L.M. Gribnau (Deventer, Wolters Kluwer, 2025).

2024: Penelope Tuck, Thomas Cuckston and Dominic de Cogan, ‘The calculation and administration of taxes as an economizing force’, in Hendrik Vollmer (ed), Handbook of Accounting in Society (Cheltenham, Elgar, 2024).

2024: Penelope Tuck, Dominic de Cogan and Rodrigo Ormeño-Pérez, 'Devolution, counter-conduct and territoriality: The case of Business Rates in the United Kingdom' (2024) 56(6A) British Accounting Review.

2023: Dominic de Cogan and Donard de Cogan, ‘Aeneas Coffey and the Role of Tax in the Emergence of Modern Whiskey’ in Peter Harris and Dominic de Cogan (eds),  Studies in the History of Tax Law Vol 11 (Oxford, Hart, 2023).

2023: ‘Judicial Review in the Tax Field: Not a Spent Force’ (2023) Judicial Review 104-128.

2023: Dominic de Cogan and Alexis Brassey, ‘Introduction’ in de Cogan, Brassey and Harris (eds), Tax Law in Times of Crisis and Recovery (Oxford, Hart, 2023).

2020: ‘Mapping tax justice arguments’ in Dominic de Cogan and Peter Harris (eds.), Tax Justice and Tax Law (Oxford: Hart, 2020).

2020:  John Snape, Penelope Tuck and Dominic de Cogan, ‘A merger in a tale retold’, Tax Adviser, 1 April 2020.

2020: Tax Law, State-building and the Constitution (Oxford: Hart, 2020).

2019: Penelope Tuck, Dominic de Cogan and John Snape, ‘A tale of the merger between the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise’ in Peter Harris and Dominic de Cogan (eds.), Studies in the History of Tax Law vol. 9 (Oxford: Hart, 2019).

2019: ‘IRC v Gartside (1967): This decision involved a small point’ in Brian Sloan (ed.), Landmark Cases in Succession Law (Oxford: Hart, 2019).

2019: John Snape and Dominic de Cogan, ‘Introduction: On the significance of revenue cases’ in John Snape and Dominic de Cogan (eds.), Landmark Cases in Revenue Law (Oxford: Hart, 2019) 1-26.

2019: ‘CIR v National Federation of Self-Employed and Small Businesses (1981): All grievances converging on tax law’ in Snape and de Cogan, Landmark Cases in Revenue Law, 245-266.

2017: ‘Tax reform and Oakeshott’s rule of law’ in Monica Bhandari (ed.), Philosophical Foundations of Tax Law (Oxford: OUP, 2017), 101-123.

2016: Case note, ‘Defining tax avoidance: flirting with chaos, again’ (2016) 75(3) CLJ 474-477.

2015: ‘A changing role for the administrative law of taxation’ (2015) 24(2) Social and Legal Studies 251-270.

2015: Dominic de Cogan, Lynne Oats and Mark Billings, ‘The Board of Referees: a most useful addition to fiscal machinery’ in Peter Harris and Dominic de Cogan (eds.), Studies in the History of Tax Law (Oxford: Hart, 2015), 107-132.

2015: ‘Purposive interpretation in the age of horse trams’ [2015] BTR 80-92.

2014: Donard de Cogan and Dominic de Cogan, ‘A history of the Anglo American Telegraph Co as seen through its litigation’ in Andrea Giuntini and Ana Paula Silva (ed.), Economics and Politics in Submarine Telegraph Cables (Naples: Istituto di Storia Economica, 2014), 267-286.

2013: ‘The wartime origins of the Irish corporation tax’ [2013] 3(2) Irish Journal of Legal Studies 15-23.

2013: ‘Law and administration in capital allowances doctrine: 1878 to 1950’ in John Tiley (ed.), Studies in the History of Tax Law: Vol. 6 (Oxford: Hart, 2013) 175-219.

2013: ‘UK Uncut Legal Action v HMRC: legal inaction and a return to Fleet Street’ [2013] BTR 552-562.

2012: ‘Building incoherence into the law: a review of relief for tax losses in the early twentieth century’ [2012] BTR 655-671.