BVI Court Orders Indefinite Committal Of Extra-Territorial Contemnor

In a judgment published on 1 September 2021, the British Virgin Islands ("BVI") court has committed a contemnor litigant (and resident of the People's Republic of China) to an indefinite term of imprisonment for her failure to withdraw or discontinue overseas proceedings (the "Committal Order"), which are the subject of a BVI anti-suit injunction.

By his written judgment, Mr. Justice Jack drew a distinction between the criminal sanction for contempt of court in the UK, which carries a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment, and the Territory of the BVI.  In the BVI, the position is governed by the common law where "the normal order where a contemnor is in continuing breach of an injunction is simply that the contemnor be committed to prison indefinitely", being the order that the learned judge went on to make.  The Committal Order was made on terms that the contemnor may apply to purge her contempt, in which case "[the presiding judge] will consider whether the