One of the fundamental principles of corporate law is that joint stock companies have separate legal personality and their debts are, as a general rule, recoverable only against their own assets. However, separate legal personality does not mean that board members can under no circumstances be held personally liable for the company's debts. In particular, statutory provisions designed to secure the collection of public receivables allow board members to incur personal liability for the company's public debts where certain conditions are met and permit recourse to the personal assets of those members held liable.