Piercing the Corporate Veil: The Supreme Court has Spoken (2013).
Perhaps the first case
any law student taking the company law module will ever be introduced to is
that of Salamon v Salamon & Co Ltd
(1897). Salamon represented a
unanimous decision to uphold the doctrine of corporate personality. What is the
corporate personality doctrine? The doctrine established that an incorporated
company has a distinct identity from its shareholders (members) and, therefore,
must be dealt with and sued in its own name.
Before the anti-capitalists uproar at the idea of a distinct corporate personality, its merits should be explored. For many years to date, the doctrine has facilitated the expansion of business activity by allowing those with little or limited capital, or those lacking an unlimited appetite for risk, the comfort to invest in an incorporated company in the knowledge that should the company fall insolvent or obtain some legal liability against itself it will not be possible for the shareholder to be pursued. Thus, the corporate personality doctr…
Before the anti-capitalists uproar at the idea of a distinct corporate personality, its merits should be explored. For many years to date, the doctrine has facilitated the expansion of business activity by allowing those with little or limited capital, or those lacking an unlimited appetite for risk, the comfort to invest in an incorporated company in the knowledge that should the company fall insolvent or obtain some legal liability against itself it will not be possible for the shareholder to be pursued. Thus, the corporate personality doctr…
