Professor Bryan Camp
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George H. Mahon Professor of Law, 2001 (806) 742-3990 x269 Email: bryan.camp@ttu.edu |
Admitted to practice in Virginia.
In 1988, after earning his J.D. and M.A., Professor Camp clerked for the Honorable John P. Wiese of what is now called the Court for Federal Claims. He worked on tax, takings, and government contract cases. Then, as an Assistant County Attorney for Arlington, Virginia, he experienced the myriad delights of providing legal counsel to a local government, ranging from litigating various civil matters to practicing what he likes to call "transactional constitutional law." Professor Camp left public service briefly to work as an associate in a small Washington D.C. firm. There he divided his time between commercial law, contract law, and estate planning.
In 1993, after earning his LL.M., Professor Camp returned to public service as a Senior Docket Attorney in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel's National Office in Washington, D.C. There he spent eight years delving into the details of subtitle F of the Internal Revenue Code and the subtleties of the Bankruptcy Code, dispensing advice to IRS field attorneys across the country and helping devise appropriate responses to adverse judicial opinions. In 1997 and 1998 Professor Camp was privileged to be a fly on the wall when Congress ground out the Internal Revenue Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (the RRA). He participated in the IRS efforts to affect that legislation. After the RRA's enactment, Professor Camp led the regulatory response to one of the most complicated of the RRA provisions. The resulting proposed regulation was published in the Federal Register on January 2, 2001. During his tenure at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, Professor Camp received numerous awards, the last one being the 2000 Attorney of the Year for the General Litigation Division.
In 2001, Professor Camp joined Texas Tech. He lectures and writes on tax law, tax administration, administrative law, bankruptcy, statutory interpretation, constitutional law, and jurisprudence. He is the author of over 30 published articles and treatise chapters, plus numerous shorter works. His scholarship on taxation of cyberspace has taken him to London and Berlin to advise government agencies. Since 2004 he has written 18 articles on tax administration and policy for Tax Notes, the premier national publication devoted solely to tax issues. In addition, his long-standing and continuing interest in United States legal intellectual history and social history is reflected in his selection to participate in the 2003 Supreme Court Historical Society's summer seminar and in scholarly presentations before the New York Historical Society and Haverford College.
During his time at Texas Tech, Professor Camp has received consistent recognition for his scholarship from both within and without the Law School. In 2007 he was named the Law School's Outstanding Researcher. In 2008, he was awarded the George H. Mahon professorship. In 2009, he was elected into the American Law Institute. In 2010, the Texas Bar Foundation recognized Professor Camp for Best Law Review Article published in Texas in 2009. Also in 2010, Professor Camp was again named as the Law School's Outstanding Researcher.
Professor Camp is active in the American Bar Association Section of Taxation. In addition to giving over 30 CLE presentations to the ABA and other groups since 2003, he was honored to chair the Individual and Family Taxation Committee between 2007 and 2009. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Practicing Tax Lawyer.
Degrees
B.A. Haverford College, 1982
J.D. University of Virginia, 1987
M.A. University of Virginia, 1988
LL.M. Columbia University, 1993
Courses
Tax, Tax Administration, Administrative Law, Legal History, Civil Procedure
Selected Publications
Interpreting Statutory Silence, 128 Tax Notes 501 (August 2, 2010) (exploring the application of Chevron to interpreting the Tax Code and the role of courts in reviewing Treasury regulations in the context of a specific controversy about I.R.C. §6015, the Innocent Spouse provisions).
What Good is the National Taxpayer Advocate? 126 Tax Notes 1243 (March 8, 2010) (reviewing and critiquing the role of the National Taxpayer Service in tax administration).
Theory and Practice in Tax Administration, 29 Virginia Tax Review 501 (2009) (detailing the history of automation in tax administration and the effect on taxpayer compliance)
Protecting Trust Assets from the Federal Tax Lien, 1 Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal 295 (2009) (study of federal tax liens and how trust provisions might successfully protect non-liable beneficiary interests). This article received the Texas Bar Foundation award for Best Article published in a Texas Law Review in 2009.
The Failure of Adversary Process in the Administrative State, 84 Indiana L. J. 57 (Winter 2009) (empirical study of 976 judicial opinions demonstrating how tax procedure provisions titled “Collection Due Process” fail to provide meaningful review of IRS tax collection activity).
Presumptions and Tax Return Preparer Fraud, 120 Tax Notes 167 (July 17, 2008) (exploring doctrinal and policy arguments for and against attributing tax return preparer fraud to innocent taxpayers and critiquing recent Tax Court case on the subject).
The Play's The Thing: A Theory of Taxing Virtual Worlds, 59 Hastings L. J. 1 (2007)(an appraisal of the fundamental distinction between legal and economic conceptions of income through the lens of taxpayer activities solely with virtual world environments such as World of Warcraft and Second Life).
Proceduralist Reflections on Home Mortgage Foreclosures, 117 Tax Notes 483 (October 29, 2007) (5,000 words) (commenting on the futility of proposed legislation to provide relief for the targeted taxpayer population because of procedural barriers).
The Mysteries of Erroneous Refunds, 114 Tax Notes 231 (2007 ) (exposing a little known hole in the IRS collection system and proposing legislative fix).
The Equal Protection Problem in Innocent Spouse Procedures, 112 Tax Notes 281 (2006) (demonstrating an unintended problem created by the interplay of three tax administration doctrines—Congress enacted a legislative fix in 2007).
The Function of Forms, 110 Tax Notes 531 (2006 )(exploring the role of IRS forms in tax administration and whether courts should take a functional or formal approach to interpreting them).
The Unhappy Marriage of Law and Equity in Section 6015, 108 Tax Notes 1307 (2005) (reviewing the history and purpose of the joint and several liability for married couples).
Tax Administration As Inquisitorial Process & the Partial Paradigm Shift of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, 56 Fla. L. Rev. 1-133 (2004) (reconceiving 1998 legislation as unwittingly inserting adversarial provisions into an otherwise inquisitorial agency process).
Form Over Function in Fifth Circuit Tax Cases, 2001-2002, 34 Texas Tech Law Rev. 733 (Winter 2003) (critiquing Fifth Circuit Tax cases for excessive formalism) (Winner of Review's Best Article award for book).
Bound By the BAP: The Stare Decisis Effects of BAP Decisions, 34 San Diego L. Rev. 1643 (Fall 1997) (proposing proper role for Bankruptcy Appellate Panel decisions).
Dual Construction of RICO: The Road Not Taken in Reves, 51 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 61 (Winter 1994)(proposing anti-rule-of-lenity for statutory construction of RICO).