Beneficiary’s Control as a Criterion for Determining the Nationality of a Legal Entity

The concept of control has been spreading in recent years in establishing the nationality of a legal entity, which is accompanied by the creation of registers of beneficiaries in various jurisdictions. Based on the nationality of the beneficiary, the legal status of a legal entity in relations with a foreign state is determined (determination of the jurisdiction of the court, exercise of corporate rights, etc.). The development of the concept may lead to a revision of existing approaches to corporate governance (for example, in terms of creating holdings with intermediate links), a shift in discussion accents in corporate law and a restructuring of the taxation architecture. The purpose of the study is to establish the main directions of the influence of the concept of control of corporate participants and their beneficiaries on the development of corporate law institutions. The objectives are: to identify the significance of the control criterion for determining the personal law of a legal entity and its nationality; to evaluate the effect of the theory of control in determining the right to claim a beneficiary in the interests of a controlled corporation, initiating bankruptcy proceedings against a foreign legal entity and compulsory exclusion from the corporate structure of ownership of economically significant organizations of foreign holding companies. The study was conducted on the basis of an analysis of foreign and domestic sources, the author’s personal empirical experience, and an analysis of judicial practice. The methods of system analysis, teleological interpretation are applied to assess the effectiveness of available legal means, as well as an interdisciplinary approach. Based on the results of the analysis, the author comes to conclusions about the close correlation of the theory of control with the economic affiliation of assets, the influence of transparency of information about beneficiaries on the logic of corporate governance and control systems.