The outbreak of World War II saw a remnant League of Nations’ Secretariat relocating to Princeton. This ‘Princeton Mission’, supported by private American foundations and the US government, spreads the double taxation movement in the Americas, making inroads into Latin America that culminate in the negotiation of the 1943 Mexico Model.Faltering inter-American relations and the birth of the new United Nations lead the Mission to hastily organise the Fiscal Committee’s Tenth Session with little developing country representation in the attempt to legitimise its wartime work before the dissolution of the League. The result was the 1946 London Model.

Planning for the UN Fiscal Commission by the Princeton Mission began as early as March 1943 and would require a utilisation of the Mission’s networks to bring the body to fruition in the United Nations. The blueprint of the Commission was greatly ambitious, but decisions made by the international community affecting its establishment in the Economic and Social Council would render it unable to succeed its predecessor in fundamental ways. The far from widespread support for its creation as well as the existence of the new specialised agencies would moreover have long-lasting repercussions for the Commission’s terms of reference and scope of work.