Calm After The Storm - BVI Gets Back To Business

After the hurricane, decisions of global significance have continued to emerge from the BVI – in fact, the courts are as busy as ever.

There are many hurdles cross-border high-value litigation throws up before a seasoned lawyer but 200mph winds, razed infrastructure and departmental displacement are not ordinarily among them. However, after the hurricane, the Commercial Division of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court is back in operation. And, rather than ease its way back into its already significant workload, it has embraced the increased demand for its services and is once again hearing cases and handing down judgments on some of the most significant cross-border work in the common law world. This, along with the wide gateway to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, has meant that relevant and complex decisions often determinative of wider global disputes have continued to emerge from the jurisdiction almost uninterrupted in the past legal year.