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Offshore Finance Centres and Tax Havens pp 166–191Cite as

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A Legislature for Hire: The Capture of the State in Jersey’s Offshore Finance Centre

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Abstract

Over the past thirty years a large number of micro-states2 and small island economies (SIEs) around the world have attracted offshore finance and tax haven activity. Their low levels of effective taxation, minimal regulatory regimes and bank secrecy made these offshore finance centres (OFCs) highly attractive to global financial capitalism. The uneven nature of the relationship between the transnational financial institutions operating offshore and their SIE hosts results in the latter competing to accommodate their fiscal and regulatory structures to the interests of financial capital.

Keywords

  • Monetary Union
  • Industrial Capital
  • Channel Island
  • Cayman Island
  • Senior Civil Servant

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

‘Would the last Jerseyman to leave the Island kindly take the flag.’1

The authors would like to thank the many people in Jersey and the UK who offered helpful criticism of early drafts of this chapter. However, the usual disclaimers apply.

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Authors
  1. John Christensen
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  2. Mark P. Hampton
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Portsmouth, UK

    Mark P. Hampton (senior lecturer) (senior lecturer)

  2. Department of International Studies, Nottingham Trent University, UK

    Jason P. Abbott (lecturer) (lecturer)

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© 1999 John Christensen and Mark P. Hampton

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Christensen, J., Hampton, M.P. (1999). A Legislature for Hire: The Capture of the State in Jersey’s Offshore Finance Centre. In: Hampton, M.P., Abbott, J.P. (eds) Offshore Finance Centres and Tax Havens. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14752-6_7

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