The mu-eta(2):eta(2)-peroxodicopper(II) complex synthesized by reacting the Cu(I) complex of the bis-diamine ligand N,N'-di-tert-butyl-ethylenediamine (DBED) with O(2) is a functional and spectroscopic model of the coupled binuclear copper protein tyrosinase. This complex reacts with 2,4-di-tert-butylphenolate at low temperature to produce a mixture of the catechol and quinone products, which proceeds through three intermediates (A-C) that have been characterized. A, stabilized at 153 K, is characterized as a phenolate-bonded bis-mu-oxo dicopper(III) species, which proceeds at 193 K to B, presumably a catecholate-bridged coupled bis-copper(II) species via an electrophilic aromatic substitution mechanism wherein aromatic ring distortion is the rate-limiting step. Isotopic labeling shows that the oxygen inserted into the aromatic substrate during hydroxylation derives from dioxygen, and a late-stage ortho-H(+) transfer to an exogenous base is associated with C-O bond formation. Addition of a proton to B produces C, determined from resonance Raman spectra to be a Cu(II)-semiquinone complex. The formation of C (the oxidation of catecholate and reduction to Cu(I)) is governed by the protonation state of the distal bridging oxygen ligand of B. Parallels and contrasts are drawn between the spectroscopically and computationally supported mechanism of the DBED system, presented here, and the experimentally derived mechanism of the coupled binuclear copper protein tyrosinase.