Holding complexity: analysing the CJEU's VAT case law as a network

Abstract

In this article, we explore the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on value added tax using network analysis. We carry out a case study on the collection of rulings dealing with the VAT treatment of holding companies and economic activities. We construct a case-to-case network and we identify the most important cases of this topic-specific collection of VAT cases. We make a contribution to knowledge by showing how the construction of a paragraph-to-paragraph network and the application of a community detection algorithm effectively assist in identifying core judicial rules in the CJEU's case law.