It is with great sadness that Kluwer Law International has learned of the passing of Frans Vanistendael.
On a very hot summer day more than thirty years ago, Henk van Arendonk, Fred de Hosson, Leo Stevens and I drove to a village near Leuven where we met with Frans. Our mission was to convince him to help us develop a new periodical on EU taxation. With Europe taking a more and more active role in the development of tax law, we had identified the need for a review solely focused on EU taxation and the impact of the EU on national tax law, aimed at both practitioners and academics to provide them with in-depth analysis of these developments. Frans was immediately convinced and threw his weight behind the initiative. We launched EC Tax Review in 1992 with Frans as the chairman of the editorial board, a role he successfully took on for the first 15 years.
I remember the early days of EC Tax Review. Frans was a pleasure to work with, a professional, dependable and active editor. As with all new journals, it was not always easy to fill the pages and I am convinced that we would not have managed without Frans. He not only had an impressive network of potential authors, he regularly also saved the day by writing an excellent article himself over the weekend … we never really understood how he managed to do so, although it demonstrated his devotion to the publication and the breadth of his expertise and knowledge, his great mind.
Apart from being an outstanding scholar and chairman of the editorial board, I also remember Frans for his kindness and his modesty. As a (then) very young publisher, he always managed to put me at ease and supported me throughout.
EC Tax Review is only one of the many legacies that Frans has left to the tax community. Kluwer Law International and I personally cannot thank Frans enough for his contribution.
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