EMERGENCE AND EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT “SEPARATE LEGAL PERSONALITY”

Introduction. The aim of the present Article is to analyze the emergence and evolution of the concept “separate legal personality” in line with the trends of political and economical changes in Europe.

Materials and Methods. The methodological ground of the present Article represents the dialectic scientific method of research of the socio-political, legal and organizational processes with its principles of development, integrity, consistency, etc. The consistency analysis method is used while researching the object of the analysis. Some specific research methods are also used: formal-logical and comparative legal method are used to compare decisions of different courts on the same precedent. The aim of the present article is to find the root of the problem and compare positions of opponents in order to give recommendations for the solution of the problem.

Results. The author makes a general conclusion that the precedent court judgement on the case «Salomon v. Salomon and Co. Ltd» raise the issue of corporate liability, including the problem of introducing criminal corporate liability that is of real importance in the light of political and economical transformation of Europe.

Discussion and Conclusions. One of the most disputable and controversial issues today in the legal and political society of Europe and the Russian Federation is a question of necessity of introduction of criminal liability for corporations. This issue is particularly troubling in the light of the State Duma of the Russian Federation’s initiative on necessity of criminalization of corporate liability and the Russian Federal Chamber of Lawyers’ strong opposition to this idea.

Corporate crime is a serious phenomenon, which produces high level of social danger in many fields – economy and trade, health and safety at workplace, environmental protection, human rights and others. Introducing criminal liability of legal persons in some nation-states has opened theoretical debates in various academic disciplines, such as criminal law, criminology, sociology and social psychology, economic science and others. So, how did it all start?

The article focuses on different theoretical approaches towards the emergence of the concept of “corporation” as a separate entity in the civil relations. The author gives a review of such concept using the example of the precedent «Salomon v. Salomon and Co. Ltd». The present research comes to the following conclusion: exactly at the stage of industrial society the current concept of the corporation as a separate entity emerged with the necessary scope of rights and liabilities in the light of political and economic transformation of Europe.

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