The BVI Common Law After Broad Idea

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has recently handed down its heavily anticipated Judgment in the conjoined BVI appeals of Broad Idea International Ltd v Convoy Collateral Ltd and Convoy Collateral Ltd v Cho Kwai Chee.

A few key takeaways may be gleaned from the judgment

1. On the matter of the service out on a foreign defendant of a claim form in which a freezing injunction is the only relief sought, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Civil Procedure Rules 2000 (the "EC CPR") confer no such power on the BVI Courts. Accordingly, this apparent limitation in the EC CPR may only be remedied by their amendment.
2. Re-affirming the Black Swan jurisdiction (which has since been placed on a statutory footing) and departing from the dicta of the House of Lords in The Siskina, the Privy Council noted that a freezing injunction is not, on a true analysis, ancillary to a cause of action, in the sense of a claim for substantive relief, or at all. The essential