Piercing All the Veils: Applying an Established Doctrine to a New Business Order

35 Pages Posted: 20 Mar 2008

Abstract

"Piercing the corporate veil" (piercing) has a long, if controversial, history in the law of business. It allows creditors of such an entity to disregard the limited liability normally given its shareholders and hold them personally answerable for the debts of the enterprise. The remedy arose as a counterbalance to the asset shield normally afforded corporate investors, and it is closely tied to important issues involving the accountability and social responsibility of business.

In the last decade, this special protection - at first only given to corporate shareholders - has been extended to investors in two new business entities, the limited liability company (LLC) and the limited liability partnership (LLP). Consequently, concerns have been expressed about whether the piercing doctrine should be applied to those companies and, if so, how it should affect their liability shields.

JEL Classification: K22

Suggested Citation

Morrissey, Daniel J., Piercing All the Veils: Applying an Established Doctrine to a New Business Order. Journal of Corporation Law, Vol. 32, No. 3, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1109180

Daniel J. Morrissey (Contact Author)

Gonzaga University - School of Law ( email )

721 N. Cincinnati Street
Spokane, WA 99220-3528
United States

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