The Anguillan government has published a bill for a new
Insolvency Act for public review and consultation.
Background
Reform of Anguillan insolvency law is long overdue. Personal
bankruptcy is presently regulated under the Bankruptcy Act (Cap
B.15) which is based loosely on the English Bankruptcy Act 1914,
but corporate insolvency is given only the most superficial
treatment by existing statute law. A number of these difficulties
were brought to the fore in the recent high profile bankruptcy of
Cap Juluca (in which Harneys acted for the majority creditor
group).
The new bill is closely modelled on the Insolvency Act 2003 of
the British Virgin Islands (BVI) which was drafted by senior
lawyers working in Harneys' BVI office. In many instances the
relevant provisions have been copied across word for word, but the
Anguillan legislature has also updated and revised certain
provisions which had been separately considered for reform in the
original BVI template
