Piercing the Corporate Veil in Australia

Abstract

There has been a significant amount of literature by commentators discussing the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil. However, there has not been a comprehensive empirical study of the Australian cases relating to this doctrine.

In this article, the authors present the results of the first such study. Some of the findings are: (1) there has been a substantial increase in the number of piercing cases heard by courts over time; (2) court are more prepared to pierce the veil of a private company than a public company; (3) piercing rates decline as the number of shareholders in companies increases; (4)courts pierce the corporate veil less frequently when piercing is sought against a parent company than when piercing is sought against one or more individual shareholders; and (5) courts pierce more frequently in a contract context than in a tort context.

Keywords: corporate veil

JEL Classification: K22