The Piercing of the Corporate Veil Doctrine: A Comparative Approach to the Piercing of the Corporate Veil in European Union and Albania

Abstract

Present research paper is focused on the piercing of the corporate veil in the European Union (EU) company law (CL) and Albanian CL. Considering the importance of corporate activity in our days, it is of a specific significance to discuss the applied standards whether the corporate veil should be pierced or not. The corporate veil doctrine presents one of the issues most studied in CL; the doctrine itself is closely related to two legal concepts such as legal personality of the corporate and limited liability of the people behind the corporate. Although limited liability of the corporate is defined by the CL and even in the statute of the corporate, it is not uncontroverted. Along with that, courts examine different factors and conditions while decide to pierce the corporate veil. Company term is given in article (art.) 54 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), as an art. which refers the constitution of the companies under specified legislation. In addition, the corporate is one of the most common business organisation that provides for its shareholders limited liability to the amount they have subscribed. Besides the theories and attempts form a comprehensive framework for piercing of the corporate veil, the decision is up to the court’s discretion.The interpretation will be mainly based on the EU primary and secondary law, the doctrine for piercing the corporate veil, case laws and different articles; additionally one has to bear in mind that despite the metaphoric meaning, the veil dividing the corporate and people behind it may be set aside for the protection of higher interests.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n9p153