Introduction

More years ago that either us would probably wish to call to mind, John Tiley taught me matrimonial law at Cambridge. He was a new fellow at Queens' and as a then first year student at Sidney Sussex I have a favourable recollection of his lectures even though the elements of family law that he taught me have barely impinged upon my professional career (and thankfully not at all upon my private life).

In those days I suspect that neither of us knew more about tax than what little we gleaned from the leading cases that tax issues had provided in the field of equity and the law of trusts and in other branches of the law. At some stage, and no doubt by different means and for different reasons, we were both drawn into the murky and unprincipled world of taxation. From there Tiley has risen to become the UK's foremost tax law professor and I have had the great pleasure of coming to know him through our shared interest in the subject.

Within the tax field Tiley has sought in particular to cast light on the difficult topic of tax avoidance. Among his many contributions to the British Tax Review on that topic is an article on the development of the case law since Ramsay and a case note on what have become known as the BMBF and SPI cases.