Archaeology of a Treasure Island: Actors and Practices of Holding Companies in Luxembourg (1929–1940)

in Contemporary European History (2023)

Tax avoidance has become a hotly discussed topic. These debates have been informed by academic research done by social scientists. Historians, relative latecomers in the field, argue for a greater ... [more ▼]

Tax avoidance has become a hotly discussed topic. These debates have been informed by academic research done by social scientists. Historians, relative latecomers in the field, argue for a greater consideration of the interwar period so as to understand the pathway dependencies of the infrastructures used for tax dodging practices today. This article explores the question of how Luxembourg became, in the 1930s, an important node in the network of legal re-coding of capital for tax shopping purposes. The Holding Act of 1929 offered legal security but was vague enough to foster a fiscal bricolage that allowed notaries, banks and lawyers to serve a heterogeneous group of people eager to pay less tax. Concealing the real beneficiaries of the holding while at the same publicising the opportunities of the legal coding proved to be a complementary process. [less ▲]

Review - Cristina Ferreira, Ludovic Maugué, Sandrine Maulini, L’homme-bus : une histoire des controverses psychiatriques (1960-1980)

in Crime, Histoire and Sociétés (2022), 26(1), 123-124

Le 10 janvier 1986, Martial Richoz est placé de force à l’hôpital psychiatrique de Cery, dans la banlieue de Lausanne. Ce jeune homme se promenait depuis plusieurs années avec un trolleybus en miniature ... [more ▼]

Le 10 janvier 1986, Martial Richoz est placé de force à l’hôpital psychiatrique de Cery, dans la banlieue de Lausanne. Ce jeune homme se promenait depuis plusieurs années avec un trolleybus en miniature dans les rues de sa ville, déguisé en chauffeur des transports lausannois. Son enfermement se transforme en affaire juridique, médiatique et politique. Ce moment est l’occasion pour Cristina Ferreira, Ludovic Maugué et Sandrine Maulini de retracer « une histoire des controverses psychiatriques... [less ▲]

“COVIDwear” and Health Care Workers. How Has the New Materiality of Clothing Affected Care Practices?

in European Journal for Nursing History and Ethics (2022), (4),

The pandemic fundamentally changed the material culture of clothing for care workers. If most of them wore already some sort of uniform, be it for hygienic reasons, be it to make their status visible ... [more ▼]

The pandemic fundamentally changed the material culture of clothing for care workers. If most of them wore already some sort of uniform, be it for hygienic reasons, be it to make their status visible, Covid19 profoundly transformed the clothing codes, beyond the mask. These new “protections” thoroughly changed the caring experiences in several aspects. As they enclose the body more intimately, working conditions became more laborious. The sensory land¬scapes of care (vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell) were fundamentally altered. Working rhythms had to be adopted as putting on the garments took longer. If care clothing had been characterised by a slow de-standardisation since the 1970s, the pandemic made a uniformed and medicalised uniform again mandatory. [less ▲]

Maladies mentales et société (XIXe – XXIe siècles)

Book published by La Découverte (2022)

History of Medicine: European perspectives

in European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health (2021), 78(1), 5--14

Medical Histories of Belgium New Narratives on Health, Care and Citizenship in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Book published by Manchester University Press (2021)

Introduction

in Majerus, Benoît; Vandendriesche, Joris (Eds.) Medical Histories of Belgium New Narratives on Health, Care and Citizenship in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (2021)

Beyond boundaries: histories of dis/order and dis/ability

in Majerus, Benoît; Vandendriesche, Joris (Eds.) Medical Histories of Belgium New Narratives on Health, Care and Citizenship in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (2021)

This is not a scandal in Luxembourg

in Entreprises et Histoire (2020)

At the beginning of the 1970s, Investors Overseas Service (IOS), a Panamanian company run by an American businessman, Bernie Cornfeld, with some of its subsidiaries domiciled in Luxembourg, experienced a ... [more ▼]

At the beginning of the 1970s, Investors Overseas Service (IOS), a Panamanian company run by an American businessman, Bernie Cornfeld, with some of its subsidiaries domiciled in Luxembourg, experienced a spectacular collapse. This was the first time that the Luxembourg financial centre appeared in the local and international media as a player in a globalised financial world. The crash of IOS referred to by some European press outlets as a Luxembourgish scandal, was not described in the same terms by the Luxembourg press and political elite. This case study examines how (financial) scandals erupt and are closed down in small countries. [less ▲]

Too small to be of interest, too large to grasp? Histories of the Luxembourg financial centre

in European Review of History (2020)

The importance of smaller financial centres in international capitalism has recently been highlighted by a number of ‘leaks’. Yet such public attention stands in contrast to the paucity of ... [more ▼]

The importance of smaller financial centres in international capitalism has recently been highlighted by a number of ‘leaks’. Yet such public attention stands in contrast to the paucity of historiographical research on these relatively new centres. To this regard, Luxembourg provides an interesting case study. While identified as a ‘global specialist’ by the Global Financial Centres Index, the genealogy of how it came to achieve this status remains largely under-researched. This article reviews the historiography of the Luxembourg financial centre from both external perspectives – how the international social sciences and humanities have positioned the Luxembourg financial sector within the broader finance and banking context – and internal viewpoints – how scholars in Luxembourg have recounted the relevant events. The Luxembourg financial centre began to appear in international historiography only in the last fifteen years. With only rare departures from general overviews and a tendency not to consult local sources, the contributions of international historians have mostly attempted to identify time frames and contextualise the particularities of its historical development. That said, a recent geographical diversification of the literature has seen the appearance of publications that demonstrate a more detailed understanding of its internal structures and links with other nerve centres of the global financial system. While a Luxembourg historiography began to develop in the late 1970s, it has often been produced to coincide with commemorative events, funded by players in the financial centre and frequently written by these same actors. While not necessarily hagiographic in approach, a lack of distance from the subject and a failure to problematise the subject has nevertheless meant that these writings are little more than factual introductions that, while useful, are limited in their historiographical depth. Furthermore, a dearth of archival research has produced a repetitive narrative based around a selection of key events and figures. [less ▲]