“刺破面纱”理论在关联公司合并破产中的解释与适用

The Interpretation and Application of the Theory of"Piercing the Corporate Veil"in the Merger and Bankruptcy of Affiliated Corporates

发端于美国的实质合并破产规则其理论根源实际上仍是公司法上的“刺破面纱”理论,后在实践中逐渐发展出以人格混同标准为核心,资产分离困难、破产管理收益、债权人期待为辅助的综合判断标准,但也正是其延伸出的几项标准造成了实质合并破产规则的模糊性局限。适用“刺破面纱”理论解释公司合并破产的优势有:其一,在公司合并破产中适用“刺破面纱”理论并未突破个案矫正性;其二,借由“逆向刺破面纱”与“横向刺破面纱”能够解决中国《公司法》第20条第3款未能有效规范有所关联关系公司的问题。由此,对其进行规范解释,适用“刺破面纱”理论进行关联公司合并破产是法人人格否认的效果延伸,其最终将产生债的混同效果,从而各合并破产公司之间的债权债务关系消灭。

The theoretical source of substantive consolidation doctrine originated from the US is still the theory of"piercing the corporate veil"in essence.During the practice,it has gradually developed a comprehensive judgment criterion that takes the confusion of personality as the core and difficulty in separating assets,the expectation of creditors,as well as income from bankruptcy administration as auxiliary.However,exactly because the extended criteria cause the limitation of ambiguity of the doctrine,it has advantages to explain the merger and bankruptcy of the corporates in accordance with the theory of"piercing the corporate veil".On the one hand,it does not break through the rectifiability of each case to apply"piercing the corporate veil"in the merger and bankruptcy.On the other hand,"piercing the veil in reverse"and"piercing the veil crosswise"can deal with the problems of corporates with association relationship that are not regulated effectively by Article 20 Paragraph 3 of Chinese Company Law.Therefore,it is the extension effect of disregard of the corporate personality to conduct normative interpretation on it and apply the theory of"piercing the corporate veil"to carry out the merger and bankruptcy of affiliated corporates.The final effect is the confusion of obligation,which causes the extinction of obligatory relationships among each merger and bankruptcy corporates.