论子公司非自愿债权人的法律救济

How to Relieve the Involuntary Creditors of Subsidiaries

公司独立人格和有限责任原则保护并促进了投资和创业,但却阻碍了对子公司非自愿债权人的充分救济,造成了经济效益与矫正正义之间的张力。对此,最简单的补救路径是废除或限制股东有限责任,但这一路径会极大地阻碍投资和创业,甚至危及现代市场经济的基础。传统的救济路径是法人格否认,但否认人格要求的门槛过高,不利于子公司非自愿债权人得到充分救济。域外法律实践近年来日益流行的路径是追究母公司直接责任,但这一路径在矫正正义和经济效益两方面得分都不高。更为合理的救济路径是集团责任路径。只要符合集团公司的定义,无论是否存在人格混同,也无论母公司自身行为是否存在过错,母公司或集团公司都应当对子公司非自愿债权人负责。这一路径既能更好地满足矫正正义,也有利于提高经济效益。

The principles of separate legal personality and limited liability can encourage and protect investment and entrepreneurial activity.However,these principles may hinder the full relief of involuntary creditors of subsidiaries,resulting in the tension between economic benefits and corrective justice.In this regard,abolishing or limiting the limited liability of company shareholders is the most straightforward approach to remedy this problem.Nonetheless,this approach will be a dangerous deterrent to investment and entrepreneurial activity,and even endanger the foundation of the modern market economy.Veil piercing is the traditional approach to solve this problem,but rarely applicable,which is not conducive to the adequate relief of involuntary creditors of subsidiaries.Direct liability is the emerging approach in western countries to mitigate this problem,but this approach scores high in terms of neither corrective justice nor economic benefits.The most reasonable approach to remedy this problem is the group company liability.The parent company or group company should be liable for the involuntary creditors of its subsidiaries regardless of personality confusion or the parent company’s fault.Group company liability approach can not only better satisfy corrective justice,but also help improving economic benefits.