Limited liability companies in Jordan: another story for piercing the corporate veil

Abstract

Purpose In different recent judgments, the Jordanian Court of Cassation, among many other Jordanian Courts, has found that a limited liability company's shareholder may be held liable in addition to the company itself as to claims related to the company's debits and different obligations. While the aforementioned approach does constitute a departure from the well-established former approach that the same Court has followed for a long period, the Court have unsurprisingly brought up different interpretations to the insufficient provisions that the Jordanian Companies' Law no. 22 of the year 1997 does contain pertaining this specific area of law. Accordingly, this paper aims to attempt to point out and critically examine the aforementioned Courts' decisions and law provisions to demonstrate the extent to which limited liability companies in Jordan are truly limited in liability and whether such Courts have pierced the corporate veil for adequate reasons. Design/methodology/approach To examine the extent to which limited liability companies in Jordan are truly limited in liability, this work uses the most relevant secondary data available in this relation as the main method to complete such examination and this shall include different interrelated law provisions, case law and jurisprudence. Through critically analyzing and comparing such data, this work will identify the problems connected to this specific area of law and accordingly proposes different recommendations and conclusions. Findings This work submits that the aforementioned Courts and Legislator have not dealt with such a matter in an adequate and comprehensive manner and that they should have addressed this area of law in a different and more specific way. Furthermore, this work argues that while the reasons behind the Courts' decisions shall be respected, the distinct characteristics that brought up limited liability companies into practice shall be also respected and left intact. Originality/value Taking into consideration the recent different approach followed by the Jordanian Courts to this specific area of law, and as far as the author is aware, it would not be surprising to say that there is no comprehensive and updated scholarly work which has either examined such an issue or addressed its implications from technical and legal standpoints. This paper receives its originality and value from being the first work that examines and addresses such important matter.