BVI Commercial Court confirms extra-jurisdictional
scope of free-standing relief under Arbitration Act in support of
foreign arbitrations
The Arbitration Act 2013 provides for a wide range of relief in
support of arbitral proceedings under section 43. The Commercial
Court in the BVI recently dealt with the question of whether that
standalone relief could be sought against foreign defendants in
support of foreign arbitral proceedings.
Background
The form of the Eastern Caribbean Civil Procedure Rules (the
"EC CPR") has meant that, traditionally,
free-standing relief, such as freezing orders and other
injunctions, has not been obtainable against foreign parties. The
EC CPR require certain types of relief to be sought in the form of
an application, whereas the rules which permit a party to serve out
on another party are limited to the service of claim forms (or
other documents served pursuant to a claim form that has already
been served). This has meant that, for
