Arbitration Offshore: Comparing Recent Developments In BVI And Cayman

Both the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the Cayman Islands have recently updated and modernised their arbitration regimes. The Cayman Islands passed their legislation first, and in Cayman the process of arbitration is now governed by the Arbitration Law 2012 (the Cayman Law). The BVI followed approximately 12 months later passing the Arbitration Act 2013 (the BVI Act) which now regulates the process.

Both the Cayman Law and the BVI Act are largely based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, as updated in 2006 (the Model Law), and in the case of the Cayman Law this includes elements from the English Arbitration Act 1996. The BVI Act expressly includes Article 2A of the Model Law requiring the BVI courts to interpret the legislation with regard "to its international origin and to the need to promote uniformity",¹ whereas the Cayman Law does not make express provision for this. To facilitate the operation of the Cayman Law, the Cayman