Assessment Criteria Marks will be awarded having regard to:

Focus on addressing the essay topic
Evidence of critical evaluation
Development of effective arguments in relation to the essay topic
Effective communication by organisation of your ideas and clear, concise expression
Provision of appropriate references, including compliance with the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC, 3rd ed, 2010)

Essay Topic

Corporate groups are becoming a modern fact of commercial life. It is common for large companies with substantial operations to have many wholly-owned subsidiaries overseas. ‘Judicial authorities consistently state that without contractual obligations or statutory obligations or veil-piercing, creditors of each company are entitled to pursue only the resources of that company for payment of debts'.
It is necessary to take into account the circumstances in which the courts have sought to ‘pierce the corporate veil' and disregard the separate corporate entities of the holding company and its subsidiaries, treating the activities or operations of the subsidiary as the activities and operation of the holding company.

Critically examine the above statements following the structure prescribed below.

Prescribed structure of your essay (you are strongly encouraged to use the following breakdown as headlines in your essay):

1. Introduction

2. Significance of corporate legal personality with respect to limited liability in the context of corporate groups

3. Critical examination of the corporate civil liability under section 588V of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) from the perspective of the legal principle that the courts apply to justify the ‘piercing of the corporate veil' for protection of creditors

4. Conclusion

5. Bibliography