海商事件 관련 法人格否認論에 대한 韓國과 美國간 比較法的 硏究

Abstract

The piercing corporate veil theory means that the veil of the corporation is pierced when the corporate exists only in the name and thus does not have enough asset to compensate its liability to the claimant, and, as the result, the alter ego of the corporate holds the liability of the corporate. This theory is allowed by the judge-made law not by the statutory law both in Korea and U.S. In the U.S., the existence of the dominance (control) or fraud is the only requirement in order to pierce the corporate veil while both formality and unfairness requirements should be fulfilled in Korea. In this regards, the requirement for it in Korea is more rigid than that of the U.S. The flag of convenience vessel case is different from the mere paper company case. In the latter case, the piercing corporate veil theory will be admitted more easily than the former case because in the mere paper company case the subjective abusing mind for the corporate entity in order to evade its liability is clearly appeared. Adopting objective abusing mind theory will lead to more reasonable result to protect the innocent claimants than adopting subjective abusing mind in the case of the flag of convenience case in Korea.