Piercing the Corporate Veil of An Incorporation to Ascertain the Real Actors: the United Kingdom Approach

Abstract

A cardinal principle in corporate law is that shareholders of a company are not made liable for the obligations of such incorporation above the capital they invested in exchange for their subscribe shares. However, the greatest argument with UK’s approach to maintaining the sanctity of the doctrine has been whether or not courts should continue to uphold or disregard this principle of separate legal personality when called upon to do so and under what circumstances can this be equitably done? Since the SALOMON decision, the courts have time and again been called upon to either uphold the principle of separate legal personality or to have the veil of incorporations lifted in other to hold members personally liable for the debts of the company that they operate. Thus, this paper aims at examining the doctrine of corporate veil within the UK context and the attitude of the courts in upholding this principle of law. It will also pay specific attention to the circumstances under which the separate corporate personality can be disregarded.