Corporate control and tort liability in global value chains

This chapter examines how the corporate law principles of legal personality and limited liability shape tort liability in global value chains. Focusing on multinational lead firms, it shows how parent companies use equity-based control to coordinate subsidiaries and consolidate returns while externalizing environmental and human rights harms. We analyse how asset partitioning and the rarity of veil piercing create strategic incentives and moral hazard, and assess five legal strategies to reallocate liability: tort-based veil piercing, enterprise liability, unlimited and control-based shareholder liability, and liability for conduct of others. We argue that control-based liability for lead firms offers a particularly promising way to internalize GVC-related harms.