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The Primacy Of Salomon V Salomon 's ' The Corporate Veil '

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In this light the Supreme Court, in order to arrive at a fair outcome for the wife, managed to set aside the companies separate legal personality without actually ‘lifting’ the corporate veil. As a result of this ruling, it is lucid that the primacy of Salomon v Salomon has been affirmed. Nonetheless, the case itself is significant as it also recognized for the first time that piercing the corporate veil is possible; albeit in limited circumstances. As such, rather then being referred to as an archetype of the courts reluctance towards corporate disregard, the case suggests the antitheses. Evidence of this can be found in Lord Sumption’s declaration that “ a recognition of a limited power to pierce the corporate veil, in carefully defined circumstances, is necessary if the law is not to be disarmed in the face of abuse”. In addition, Lord Sumption’s attempt in Prest to formulate a principled method to veil piercing, which in itself will be discussed in greater detail later in this essay, has provided a renewed beginning to an already complex area of company law (tan chang article). In essence, while it is true that the threshold in which the corporate veil may be pierced has been raised, a detailed analysis of the case illustrates that the abuse of corporate personality will not go unpunished (tera firm/mcardle). Having considered the ratio of Prest, when assessing the law in relation to corporate disregard as a whole it becomes evident that corporate personality has

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