Piercing the corporate veil

Partners or members who try to gain benefits for themselves by using the concept of legal personality together with the theory of piercing the corporate veil of legal personality are acting contrary to the rule of honesty. Given the potential of this issue to undermine legal certainty, Turkish law has introduced preventive legislative measures. These aim to restrict the abuse of legal personality and ensure that the corporate structure is not employed in a manner contrary to its intended legal function. In order to lay the theoretical groundwork, this thesis first seeks to explain the concept of legal personality along with its constituent elements. Following an examination of its historical development and its place within the Turkish legal system, the emergence of the theory and its related aspects are addressed. Subsequently, in the third chapter, we examined the practical application of the theory of piercing the corporate veil, detailing its methods and presenting illustrative judicial decisions. Finally, we addressed statutory provisions that give rise to practices similar to the piercing of the corporate veil. Our conclusion regarding the theory is that, while statutory provisions should be applied where their conditions are met, the theory may serve as a supplementary mechanism where such provisions are inapplicable. In practice, however, the theory has received limited attention, leading us to the view that it ought to be more prominently reflected in judicial decisions.