A legal concept that separates the personality of a corporation from the personalities of its shareholders, and protects them from being personally liable for the company’s debts and other obligations. This protection is not ironclad or impenetrable. Where a court determines that a company’s business was not conducted in accordance with the provisions of corporate legislation (or that it was just a façade for illegal activities) it may hold the shareholders personally liable for the company’s obligations under the legal concept of lifting or piercing the corporate veil.

This is a fundamental concept for commercial law.