The Corporate Veil - Origins, Exceptions and Future of a Pivotal Legal Concept

Presentation

The concept of the ‘corporate veil’ – a cornerstone of corporate law and life worldwide – is constantly put to the test in private and public law, whether in domestic legal systems or on the international plane. Recent trends such as the adoption of broad ESG liability regimes for mother companies to account for conduct of their subsidiaries are viewed by some as having the potential to radically transform this pivotal legal concept. The increasing recourse by States to private-law corporate structures to carry out certain functions has had important repercussions on ISDS.

This panel composed of eminent speakers (Dr. Claudia Annacker (Annacker International Disputes), Prof. George Bermann (Columbia Law School) and Prof. Daniel Cohen (Université Paris 2 – Panthéon-Assas) will provide the forum for a cross-disciplinary, comparative discussion that will explore the extent to which the existence of a separate legal personality is still (formally and practically) relevant in the context of shareholder/subsidiary relationships in international commercial arbitration, investment treaty arbitration and in post-arbitration enforcement before domestic courts.

The discussion will be moderated by Laura Fadlallah (Bredin Prat) and Marina Weiss (Bredin Prat).