Piercing the Veil

Vicarious liability is a principle where one person can be held liable for the acts of another . It usually occurs in relationships such as the employer-employee or the principal-agent relationships. Corporate institutions  are recognized as persons  ex lege.

En recientes resoluciones del Tribunal Supremo se discute si el sistema de extensión de responsabilidad que suponen los grupos de empresa determina una imputación de responsabilidad solidaria a todas las entidades que conforman el grupo, o bien una única imputación de responsabilidad a la entidad constituida por el conjunto del grupo. La figura de la unidad empresarial resultante de asumir esta última posibilidad plantea innumerables problemas desde el punto de vista procesal y desde el punto de vista material. Estos problemas serán analizados en este texto, junto a otro problema no menos importante: el relativo a la distinción entre el mecanismo de extensión de responsabilidad que supone el grupo de empresas, y el levantamiento del velo mercantil asumido en la normativa laboral. Esta distinción deviene imprescindible habida cuenta de que ambos han sido utilizados indistintamente en las resoluciones judiciales para extender la responsabilidad en varios supuestos de descentralización productiva, lo que hace necesario un análisis en profundidad para determinar el ámbito de aplicación de cada uno de estos sistemas.

The previous article examined Equitable Life’s case against its auditor, Ernst & Young. We saw the claim was deeply flawed in many respects, had no reasonable prospect of success and should never have been brought in the first place. Can the same be said of the claim against the former directors? To an extent, no. We will see that there are portions of the claim that were ludicrously unrealistic (notably the quantum of damages), but the directors themselves certainly were significantly more blameworthy than the auditors. There is a feeling amongst many that certain directors played a major part in the debacle and got off lightly as a result of the litigation’s collapse. That they also had their costs paid was a further source of indignation.

"Every legal term has a specific meaning. In order to
determine the meaning of a given legal term, regard has to be made, inter alia, to the context in which it is used (systematic interpre-tation).
A given legal term may thus have different implications, depending on the context (specifically: the legal “framework”) in which it is used. Correspondingly, the meaning of the legal term “piercing the corporate veil”, which is the core aspect of this essay, is also relative.
This essay seeks to name certain areas of the law in which the term is used and to highlight and describe its context-specific meaning and to show its evolution in investment arbitration deriving from a mainly common approach with commercial arbitration."

Auf der Abbildung sind vier Putten zu sehen, die jeweils ihre Ansicht der weiblichgöttlichen Natur entwerfen: der Putto an der Staffelei, der mit Respekt abstand nach der Natur arbeitet; der Putto ganz rechts, der aus der inneren Anschauung zeichnet, ohne das Modell berücksichtigen zu müssen; schließlich der Satyr in der Bildmitte, der der Natur buchstäblich unter den Schleier zu blicken versucht -und dabei vom dritten Putto abgewehrt wird. Der Kupferstich versinnbildlicht damit nicht nur kate goriale Kunst-und Bild-Konzepte, als Zahlungsbeleg für die Abonnenten des ersten Zyklus' von Hogarths A Harlot's Progress unterstreicht die Darstellung zudem die Selbstrefl ektivät und den poetologischen Charakter einer solchen Betrachtung, die um das zentrale Bildmotiv der ›verschleierten Natur‹ kreist. Bibliografi sche Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografi e; detaillierte bibliografi sche Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. Alle Rechte, auch die des auszugsweisen Nachdrucks, der fotomechanischen Wiedergabe und der Übersetzung, vorbehalten. Dies betrifft auch die Vervielfältigung und Übertragung einzelner Textabschnitte, Zeichnungen oder Bilder durch alle Verfahren wie Speicherung und Übertragung auf Papier, Transparente, Filme, Bänder, Platten und andere Medien, soweit es nicht § § 53 und 54 UrhG ausdrücklich gestatten.

Accountancy firms have long argued that they, like other providers of a service, be allowed to contractually limit their liability. In this two-­‐part article, the overall debate surrounding the limitation of auditor liability will be examined, with this second part discussing the operation of liability limitation agreements, recent notable developments and international auditor liability.

Accountancy firms have long argued that they, like other providers of a service, be allowed to contractually limit their liability. In this two-­‐part article, the overall debate surrounding the limitation of auditor liability will be examined, with this first part discussing the arguments put forward by auditors to justify the introduction of some form of limitation.

Post-9/11, communication scholars have published a number of articles invested in the
relationship between US representations of Afghan women and imperial policy*a genre
I dub the Afghan Alibi. I highlight this literature as a catalyst to consider an older image
that functioned in much the same way. A critical consideration of National Geographic’s
1985 Afghan Girl provides an opportunity to consider the ways in which representations
and public policy get fused together to rhetorically coordinate and organize meanings.
After considering the significance of the image’s cultural location, and the role National
Geographic played in US public policy, I take up six visual signifiers*veil, childhood,
eyes, anonymity, refugee, and femininity*that mark this image as victim. I conclude by
arguing that the 1985 Afghan Girl offered viewers the opportunity to rhetorically
constitute public support for President Reagan’s initiative to arm Afghanistan

There can be little doubt that there is a general feeling that NEDs are being increasingly exposed to negligence claims following corporate failures. The Equitable Life litigation has the potential to impose more liability on NEDs than all the previous cases put together. Should the High Court find for Equitable Life, then the problem of increasing NED liability will become much more pronounced. The High Court should take the time to state to what extent NEDs are expected to monitor the executives, and to what extent they are supposed to contribute to the running of the company. Ironically, at the time when the need for qualified NEDs has never been greater, recent events have ensured that such people are discouraged from taking up the post. Clarification of their role could go some way towards reducing their concerns. Langley J recognised that this area of the law is “developing.” It is to be hoped that when this case comes before him again, he contributes to its development, and grants NEDs some much needed clarification.

Since the early years of European contact with the Muslim East, hijab, in general, and the veil, in particular, have been seen by Westerners as symbols of the Islamic degradation and oppression of women. Interestingly, this perception has arisen almost exclusively without any input from Muslim women (or even Muslims in general) and without any attempt to understand why women who choose to veil do so. This essay seeks to critically examine this Western perception in an attempt to determine (1) whether it is reasonable and (2) from where it originates. It opens by giving some context to the Islamic understanding of the veil and outlining the meaning of hijab and how these terms will be used in this paper. Secondly, it briefly judges whether the perception is warranted based on Qur’anic hijab and modesty prescriptions and related later hadith and interpretive (tafsir, or exegesis) writings alongside commentary by later Muslim scholars. Third, this essay examines two potential origins – both historical and contemporary – of the Western view of the veil and its subsequent intolerance toward Islam. It also explores modern secularism as a potential perpetrator of this stereotypical modern Western view of Muslim women and the veil. Ultimately, the essay advocates an appropriate response to the Muslim veil for Australia today.

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The separate legal personality of a company is the very foundation on which company law rests. The Companies Act 71 of 2008 ('the Companies Act') has introduced into South African company law, for the first time, a statutory provision permitting inroads to be made into this fundamental principle. Section 20(9) of the Companies Act permits a court to disregard the separate legal personality of a company and to pierce the corporate veil in instances of 'an unconscionable abuse of the juristic personality of the company as a separate entity'.

Shareholders liability is one of the most difficult issues in legal science, and allocating responsibility for reckless behavior of shareholders and beneficiaries is of importance to any legal order. At the same time, whether or not shareholders will become liable is one of the most critical issues for investment attractiveness. Accordingly, one would have expected that when changing allocation of liability, there is a focus on rules being established. After a first wave of court decisions of lower instances (see https://www.academia.edu/19494453/Russian_Court_Decisions_on_Piercing_the_Corporate_Veil_as_Reaction_to_a_Partial_Banking_Crisis_German_ ), the Russian Highest Court has not seen a need to establish such general rules, but rather considered the question as a matter of fact.

The seemingly never-­ending Equitable Life litigation is finally over (although numerous investigations still continue). The case’s inevitable collapse is evidence that in the post-­Woolf era, largely pointless, ill-­conceived and ludicrously expensive cases still occur. This case garnered attention from a number of parties for numerous reasons. It grabbed the media’s attention due to the mammoth damages and costs involved. Policyholders attention concentrated on the £75 each of them loss due to the failed litigation. For company lawyers, however, the focus of the case concerned the extent of the auditors’ and directors’ liability – two issues that company law has struggled to adequately resolve for decades. In the first of a two-­‐part article, Equitable Life’s case against their auditors, Ernst & Young, will be examined.

Abstract. This article uses an Economic Analysis of Law approach to propose the adoption of the doctrine of corporate veil piercing in Mexico. This study not only recognizes the economic benefits of limited liability for society, but also identifies the incentives it creates for shareholders to abuse of the corporate form by using the corporation to unduly appropriate a corporation's assets at the expense of the corporation's creditors. On this basis, the article describes the American equity doctrine of veil piercing that courts apply in order to reach shareholders' assets in cases of fraud or misconduct against the corporation's creditors. Finally, the paper describes the current legal framework in Mexico and proposes the adoption of corporate veil piercing in the Mexican legal system. key words: Corporation, legal personality, limited liability, corporate veil piercing, economic analysis of law. resumen. Este artículo propone la adopción de la desestimación de la person-alidad jurídica en México, empleando como método el análisis económico del derecho. Este estudio no sólo reconoce los beneficios económicos que se derivan de la responsabilidad limitada para la sociedad, sino que también identifica los incentivos que ésta crea en los accionistas para apropiarse indebidamente de los bienes de la sociedad anónima en detrimento de los acreedores de ésta. Sobre esta base, el artículo describe la doctrina americana de la desestimación de la person-alidad jurídica que los jueces aplican para alcanzar los bienes de los accionistas en casos de fraude o de actos ilícitos cometidos en contra de los acreedores de la sociedad anónima. Finalmente, el artículo describe el marco jurídico actual en México para hacer frente al abuso de la forma societaria como resultado de la responsabilidad limitada y propone la adopción de la desestimación de la personalidad jurídica en México. palabras clave: Sociedad anónima, personalidad legal, responsabilidad lim-itada, desestimación de la personalidad jurídica, análisis económico del derecho.

For over a century UK courts have struggled to negotiate a coherent approach to the circumstances in which the Salomon principle-that a corporation is a separate entity-will be disregarded. Empirical analysis can facilitate our understanding of this mercurial area of the law. Examining UK cases from 1885 to 2014, we created a final dataset of 213 cases coded for 15 different categories. Key findings confirm historical patterns of uncertainty and a low but overall fluctuating disregard rate, declining recently. Criminal/fraud/deception claims link strongly to disregard outcomes. Private law rates are low but tort claims have a higher disregard rate than contract. Individual shareholders are more susceptible to disregard than corporate shareholders. The English Court of Appeal plays a key role in successful disregard claims particularly in tort. In general, while disregard rates were very context specific, concerns about the diminished sanctity of the Salomon principle may be overblown.

This study provides a brief description on the implementation of the doctrine of Piercing the Corporate Veil in the law of Indonesia, this research has been published in scientific journals of Faculty of Law of Udayana University.
This research was made in Indonesian.

Ao Rômulo, agradeço primeira e essencialmente, pela vida partilhada, pelo encanto renovado. Pela beleza de um novo dia. Ao meu pai Giomar, a força de sua presença me tornou forte e me ensinou o valor da resiliência. A minha mãe Lia: pelo companheirismo, pelo cuidado, pelo carinho e, sobretudo, pela fé. A Nathália, Vinícius e Seu Jorge: pela doçura e acolhida de uma família. Pelo refúgio silencioso em momentos difíceis. Ao pequeno Diogo: por me ensinar o imenso amor de ser tia desde o primeiro olhar. A Marta e Luis: pela generosidade e pela aposta. A minha Vó Nair e minha Madrinha Alice: pela serenidade, pelo aconchego. Ao Nelson e a Lena: pelo apoio, pelo compartilhar, pela poesia de uma constância. Nelson, professor, orientador, psicanalista: por dar sentido a palavra, a construção do trabalho e ao prosseguir. Pela amizade. Ao grupo de orientação Maíra, Alessandra, Tatiana, Ludu, Maria, Rafael, Sérgio: pelas contribuições ao trabalho, ao cotidiano da pesquisa, pelas discussões e, principalmente, pelas dúvidas. A Vivi e ao Pedro: pela delícia do encontro. A Glaucia: pela parceria e pela cumplicidade do sim. A Carol, Débora, Elisa, Suely, Talita e Tífani: pela amizade, pela história e pelas intensidades de paixões partilhadas. A Raquel: pela irmandade e pelo conforto em contar com uma eterna presença, mesmo à distância. A Tatiana e Silvia, encarnação da beleza presente na reafirmação diária da feminilidade. A Renata e ao Flávio, pela hospitalidade, por eternos brindes. A Denise Bernuzzi Sant'Anna e Tiago Corbisier Matheus pela atenção e generosidade na leitura do trabalho em sua fase inicial. ! ! Aos professores Jean-Luc Gaspard e Alain Abelhauser: pela aprendizagem, pela problematização e pelo abrir de portas. A David Le Breton, por reavivar meu interesse sobre os temas do corpo e da adolescência.

Abstract
1. In spite of the principle of the common will of the parties that governs the arbitration agreement and the arbitration in general as an alternative to the State Courts, there is a growing trend of international arbitration practice and doctrine which extends the effects of the arbitration agreement to third non-signatory parties.

2. Arbitrators from different jurisdictions justified their extension decision on theories such as group of companies, group of contracts, piercing the corporate veil (alter ego), implicit agency relationship, or subrogatio situations.

3. This dissertation paper is trying to assess the applicability of these theories under the Romanian Law, with a focus on the Romanian Procedural Law and the rules of the Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania.

4. We shall examine the situations permitted by the CICA Arbitration Rules and Romanian legislation when a third party non signatory can become part of an arbitration dispute.

5. All these theories will be referred globally as the Extension Theories.

6. In the introductive chapter, first we shall present our considerations conducting to the selection of this topic in order to become subject to the current analyse.

7. In the methodology chapter (Chapter II) we shall indicate the types of research performed, the order of the study and the logic behind it.

8. In the general consideration chapter (Chapter III) we shall propose a definition for arbitration, in close relation with the consensus principle and emphasizing the exceptions from this principle.

9. In the next chapter (Chapter IV) we shall present the most important theories which justify the exceptions from the party consensus principle. Flowing to this, we shall present the Extension Theories and the arguments which justify the extension of the arbitration agreement to third non signatory parties and the jurisdictions where these theories are embraced by the arbitrators and the local legislations.

10. In Chapter V there will be made an analysis of the obstacles in applying the Extension theories raised by Romanian legislation and CICA Rules.

11. Chapter VI will deal with some special situations under CICA Rules in relation with the main topic of the dissertation.

12. Chapter VII we will present the possibilities to extend the arbitration agreement to third non-signatory parties under CICA Rules and NCPC.

13. Chapter VIII is a collection of CICA cases where the extension of arbitration agreement was taken into consideration.

14. And finally, in the last chapter IX conclusions:
• we shall assess if the Extension Theories are applicable even in Romania and in which situations.
• we shall identify the situations from Romanian Civil Procedural Code standpoint which allow the extension of a case to other parties as Joinder.
• finally, we shall present our opinion by proposing a few law adjustments in order to make the Extension Theories applicable in Romania on a wider scale.

Novelom Općeg poreznog zakona donesenom u srpnju 2012. godine propisana je odgovornost članova trgovačkih društava, osoba koje vode poslove društva, te povezanih osoba, kao poreznih jamaca za nenaplaćene porezne dugove društava. U gotovo sedmogodišnjoj praktičnoj primjeni ovog tzv. instituta proboja pravne osobnosti, posebno se spornim pokazalo pitanje povratnog (retroaktivnog) djelovanja relevantnih zakonskih pravila, odnosno vezivanja pravnih posljedica proboja i za činjenična stanja realizirana prije stupanja na snagu predmetnih zakonskih odredbi. Upravo je analizi ovog problema, pogotovo u svjetlu bogate upravnosudske i ustavnosudske prakse razvijene u prethodnom razdoblju, posvećen ovaj rad. Polazeći od općih pravila o vremenskom važenju (poreznih) propisa, zaključak je analize da pravna shvaćanja Visokog upravnog suda i Ustavnog suda RH u prilog dopuštenosti povratnog djelovanja predmetnih pravila, nisu utemeljena na mjerodavnim ustavnim i zakonskim normama. Stoga se u radu upozorava na važnost očuvanja barem minimalne razine pravne sigurnosti u hrvatskom poreznom sustavu, što je uvelike i odgovornost nadležnih sudova.

The seemingly never-­‐ending Equitable Life litigation has finally and inevitably collapsed amid repeated calls for resignations, accusations of inflated damages claims and a general feeling that the case should never have made it to court in the first place. Understandably, much of the sympathy has fallen on Equitable's policy holders who saw £45 million of their investment dissipated in lawyer's fees. The crowing exhibited by Ernst & Young and their legal team did little to encourage us to sympathise with their claims that the combination of “ deep pockets” and joint and several liability makes auditors easy targets for inflated damages claims. The Penrose Report demonstrated in no uncertain terms that some of the directors involved undoubtedly contributed to the débâcle that this litigation concerned.

Veil-piercing is an equitable remedy.  This simple insight has been lost over time.  What started as a means for corporate creditors to reach into the personal assets of a shareholder has devolved into a doctrinal black hole.  Courts apply an expansive list of amorphous factors, attenuated from the underlying harm, that engenders under-inclusive, unprincipled, and unpredictable results for entrepreneurs, litigants, and scholars alike.

Veil-piercing is misapplied because it is misconceived.  The orthodox approach is to view veil-piercing as an exception to limited liability that is justified potentially only when the latter is not, a path that invariably leads to examining scenarios based on different types of creditors/claims, corporations, and shareholders.  But the occasion to seek derivative relief from a shareholder arises only when a claim cannot be enforced against a defendant corporation.  Veil-piercing is thus a secondary remedy, detached from limited liability and its rationales.

To fix veil-piercing, corporate law must look beyond itself.  For centuries the law of restitution has featured the constructive trust, an equitable remedy that disgorges misappropriated assets from unjustifiably enriched parties.  This Article novelly re-conceives veil-piercing as constructive trust and demonstrates how its application to judgment-proof corporations can yield more coherent and effective results.

For over a century UK courts have struggled to negotiate a coherent approach to the circumstances in which the Salomon principle-that a corporation is a separate legal entity-will be disregarded. Empirical analysis can facilitate our understanding of this mercurial area of the law. Examining UK cases from 1885 to 2014, we created a final dataset of 213 cases coded for 15 different categories. Key findings confirm historical patterns of uncertainty and a low but overall fluctuating disregard rate, declining recently. Criminal/fraud/deception claims link strongly to disregard outcomes. Private law rates are low but tort claims have a higher disregard rate than contract. Individual shareholders are more susceptible to disregard than corporate shareholders. The English Court of Appeal plays a key role in successful disregard claims particularly in tort. In general, while disregard rates were very context specific, concerns about the diminished sanctity of the Salomon principle may be overblown.

The Companies Act 71 of 2008 has introduced into our company law a statutory provision permitting courts to pierce the corporate veil, contained in s 20(9). While this provision is to be welcomed, it does however raise many questions, difficulties and uncertainties, some of which have been addressed by the court in the recent case of Ex parte Gore and Others NNO 2013 (3) SA 382 (WCC), which handed down the first judgment on s 20(9) of the Companies Act 71 of 2008. This article contends that the wording of s 20(9) together with the interpretation of s 20(9) as advocated by Gore gives our courts very wide powers to pierce the corporate veil. It will be considered in this article whether the meaning given by Gore to the term ‘unconscionable abuse’ has resulted in too low a level or threshold of abuse being set. It is submitted that our courts must not lightly disregard the corporate veil and must exercise caution and wisdom to ensure that a correct balance is drawn between piercing the veil and upholding the fundamental principle of separate legal personality enshrined in the Companies Act 71 of 2008. It is submitted further that our courts must maintain clarity and simplicity in their interpretation and application of s 20(9). It is suggested that our courts should refrain from using metaphors and pejorative expressions in their judgments on s 20(9), and should further avoid moral indignation triumphing over legal principle, as this causes confusion and uncertainty in regard to the legal principles applicable to piercing the corporate veil.

In the Russian justice system, the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil was developed at the case law level and is used to prevent abuse in corporate relationships on the part of those who control a legal entity in detriment to the property rights of the legal entity's creditors. Since the principle of limited liability is important for Russian civil circulation, it is necessary to identify the relevant grounds for the application of said doctrine and its application criteria. Our objective is to justify not only the need for preservation of the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil in the Russian legal system, but also the development of the doctrine by giving it concrete substance based on generalization of existing case law. The criteria for applying the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil are: monitoring the activities of a legal entity by another entity which can influence commercial companies' decision making, actually or legally; violations or abuse of rights; existence of a cause-and-effect relationship between a violation or an abuse of rights on the part of the beneficiary and the creditor's losses; the existence of exceptional circumstances in which it is impossible to protect the creditors' legitimate interests with other legal measures; and dispute arising from private law relations. The main consequence of applying the doctrine of piercing the corporate veil is the disregard for the corporate entity. Autonomy can manifest in three areas (extension of a party's debts to the legal entities under its control; acknowledgement that the rights and liabilities are actually vested in the party which managed the legal entity; acknowledgement of the legal entity as a representative of the controlling legal entity).

The article describes a string of new court decisions breaking the corporate veil. Those decisions appear to be a consequence of bank bankruptcies becoming ever more expensive to the state because of deposit insurance having to reimburse losses. The article attempts to predict how the theory applied in the case at hand (namely that capital adequacy legislation had not been complied with and lending transactions were entered into without a substantive review of the chances for return) can be developed to be applied to other cases of bankruptcies. The article also briefly compares the approach taken with the basis for liability under German law. The further development is explained in https://www.academia.edu/24712770/Piercing_the_Corporate_Veil_as_a_Factual_Matter.

El artículo analiza la aplicación de los acuerdos arbitrales a partes no signatarias desde la perspectiva del derecho chileno de arbitraje commercial internacional. El desarrollo de la jurisprudencia chilena más reciente permite concluir que un acuerdo arbitral puede ser oponible a una parte no signataria del mismo.

The area of corporate disregard has a poor reputation for certainty of reasoning. To provide an alternative way of approaching the issue, we conducted an empirical study of the relationship between rationale and outcome within UK corporate disregard cases from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. We examine the evidence from three perspectives. First, we examine the broad range of instrumental rationales found in the case law by disregard rates in order to identify where issues might be arising with individual rationales. Secondly, as suggested in the wider empirical literature, we examine the rationale rates by jurisdiction in order to see whether there were problematic interpretation issues concentrated in particular parts of the court levels. Thirdly, we examine the rationale rates by substantive claim to see whether con-textual aspects of the doctrine, as the court identified with family law in Prest, were influencing outcomes. By providing an empirical study on the rationales instrumental to corporate disregard outcomes we aim to introduce a broader evidential view of where concerns may lie, which can both aid critique of key judicial historical developments such as Adams and Prest and provide a broader evidence base that might aid future judicial reform of the area.

Юридична особа є самостійним учасником цивільних правовідносин. Правова фікція квазіфізичної особи дає можливість наділити правами і обов’язками певне юридичне утворення надавши йому таким чином статусу суб’єкта права.

В той же час, реалії сьогодення, вносять нормативні корективи в теоретичну конструкцію юридичної особи, в першу чергу в питанні її правосуб’єктності, зокрема відповідальності. На скільки це є виправданим? Питання для наукової дискусії.

Питання цивільно-правової відповідальності юридичних осіб приватного права, вирішено в статті 96 ЦК України (принцип «корпоративної вуалі»). Проте, сьогодні активно формується теоретичне підґрунтя зміни меж її відповідальності, зокрема притягнення до юридичної відповідальності учасника такої особи по зобов’язанням останньої. Загальна ідея такої «теоретичної модернізації» полягає в тому, що особи, яка має безпосередній вплив на прийняття управлінських рішень юридичною особою має прийняти на себе тягар відповідальності за результати її діяльності.

В цьому контексті зазначимо наступне. Принциповим є теза, що той, хто має можливість визначити долю корпорації або отримати мажоритарний прибуток від результатів її діяльності відповідає за її збитки перед третьома особами, в тому числі в разі неспроможності (банкрутства) корпорації.

Limited partnerships (LPs) and limited liability companies (LLCs) permit formation with a unique management structure in that these entities may be managed by another limited liability entity, such as a corporation. Thus, the true managers are those individuals who manage the manager. It is well settled that the managing entity, such as a corporate general partner, owes default fiduciary duties, but what of these second-tier managers? Technically, it is the managing entity that owes the duties, not the managing entity’s owners, officers, and directors, yet courts have struggled with strict adherence to this separation when it would seem inequitable to do so. Unfortunately, courts and commentators have failed, thus far, to articulate a clear rule as to when fiduciary duties should attach to second-tier managers that also makes allowances for countervailing concerns regarding the scope of such a duty. This article offers an approach aimed at resolving this problem by simply re-examining what it is that courts are doing when they attach liability. In the process of doing so, this article makes three major contributions to the existing scholarship. First, it is the only article describing the three main approaches courts have adopted to address the problem. Second, the article explains why alternate equitable theories, as currently applied, are inadequate to address this issue. Finally, this article offers a unique solution as to when fiduciary duties should attach to second-tier managers. Specifically, this article posits that liability should attach under a form of piercing the corporate veil. Unlike traditional piercing, which focuses on the abuse of the corporate form, this limited form of piercing, which I dub “piercing the fiduciary veil,” should focus on the abuse of the control exercised by second-tier managers.

Veiling practices of Muslim women have become a subject of considerable political, academic, and public debate. This paper presents the finding of research undertaken in the Sultanate of Oman examining the different and changing ways in which women wear the hijab, niqab, and burqa. The research set out to identify differences in attitudes and practices across age, marital status, region, educational level, and religious group. The findings, drawn from survey results and qualitative interviews, show that far from being a homogenous practice, veiling represents a varied and shifting phenomenon. Whilst veiling is often represented as signifying women’s oppression and lack of choice, this research shows Omani women’s understanding and conviction in deciding what to wear. The data for the study was obtained using mixed methods, both an online survey (N = 401) and focus group interviews (12 groups), with a team of Omani researchers undertaking the majority of the fieldwork between January 2013 and March 2014.

EC Recommendation 2008/473/EC of 5 June 2008 concerning the limitation of the civil liability of statutory auditors and audit firms presented three methods for limiting auditor liability: (1) the establishment of maximum financial amounts of compensation (liability caps); (2) adoption of proportionate liability; and (3) limitation of liability by agreement between the auditor and his client. The Recommendation was based on several arguments according to which the limitation of liability would be necessary to guarantee the sustainability of the audit profession given the enormous threats posed by civil litigation against auditors, especially against the member firms of the biggest international networks.

The paper starts with an analysis of the arguments presented by the European Commission for issuing the Recommendation. Each of the proposals made is also discussed separately. This preliminary approach serves as a platform for the treatment of issues not considered during the groundwork for the Recommendation, such as the risks of ‘veil piercing’, that threaten the shielding structure of international audit networks and the impact of the recent financial crisis. As regards the latter, the paper carries out an assessment between the increasing risks of the crisis-related lawsuits for the audit profession and the need to strengthen investor confidence in auditors' work. Moreover, it includes a discussion of recent developments in EU audit policy as a result of the crisis and particularly of the findings (e.g., Valukas Report) that arose from some of the major bankruptcies occurring in the US and in Europe.
The results of the analysis of the first arguments used by the EC together with the impact of the crisis lead to a conclusion regarding the need for an updated interpretation of the 2008 Recommendation.


Keywords:

auditors' limitation of liability; auditor negligence; auditor litigation; financial crisis; piercing the veil; undercapitalisation; ‘Big Four’; Valukas Report (Lehman Brothers bankruptcy report); joint and several liability; proportionate liability