Denial of corporate personality:Trial logic, inspection and guidance
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D922.291.91

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    Abstract:

    The independent personality of legal persons and the denial of corporate personality are the cornerstones of modern corporate liability system. The denial of corporate personality is the amendment and remedy for the limited liability of shareholders. In order to realize their claims, creditors often consider maximizing the subject that can be claimed, and the company's shareholders and even related subjects enter their field of vision. Article 20 of the Company Law stipulates that shareholders bear joint and several liability for the company's debts under certain conditions, which has become the legal basis for creditors to require shareholders and/or related parties to assume repayment liabilities, and has also become the main point of shareholders or related parties' defense. Analyzing the Supreme People's Court's judgments on corporate personality denial, cases with mixed personality, significant lack of capital, excessive dominance and control account for the highest proportion, which is partially in line with the specific provisions of the Minutes of the National Courts' Civil and Commercial Trial Work Conference. The Supreme People's Court Guiding Case No.15 also provides a reference value for similar cases for the determination of personality denial between affiliated companies. However, regardless of the Supreme People's Court Guiding Case No.15 or the Minutes of the National Courts' Civil and Commercial Trial Work Conference, the problems in judicial practice cannot be fully resolved. Therefore, it is urgent to conduct in-depth research on the application of corporate personality denial theoretically, so as to promote the improvement of the corporate personality denial system. Returning to the basic legal principle of corporate liability system, the core of corporate personality denial is the legal game and public-private struggle between the limited liability of shareholders and the protection of creditors' interests, and the balance of legal interests between the limited liability of corporate shareholders and the abuse of shareholders' rights. The purpose of corporate personality denial is not to eliminate corporate independence, but to exclude shareholders who abuse their rights from the protection of limited liability of shareholders, and to regard them as the same subject of responsibility as the company and bear joint and several liability to the company's creditors. As to considering factors for the improvement of the system, abuse of rights should be used to characterize the legitimacy of corporate personality denial. Not only in "forward piercing", but also in "reverse piercing" and "correlated piercing", abuse of rights can provide legitimacy for judgement of the court. The mutual gain of abstraction and formalization of abuse of rights can break the limitation of statutory provisions and the relief dilemma of various forms of abuse, and make personality denial leap from legislation to judiciary. Judicial reviewing the causal relationship between shareholders' abuse of rights and damage to the interests of creditors, and granting creditors the choice of law application of corporate personality denial and damage compensation, are in line with legal principles and can avoid the abuse of creditors' rights. Judicial judgments should expand the interpretation of abuse of shareholders' rights and introduce an interest balance mechanism to measure legal interests, and seek a balance between the limited liability of shareholders and the protection of creditors' interests.

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钟三宇.公司人格否认:裁判逻辑、检视与导正[J].重庆大学学报社会科学版,2022,28(3):242~253

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  • Online: July 04,2022
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