It has been almost 3 years since the substantial change to BVI
law, brought about by the Black Swan case. Phillip Kite
and Claire Robey set out where BVI law now stands in this important
area.
Prior to 2010 freezing injunctions in the British Virgin Islands
were only available ancillary to a substantive domestic cause of
action against the respondent. It was not possible to seek an
injunction ancillary to foreign proceedings. This was a result of a
restrictive interpretation of Lord Diplock's speech in The
Siskina.1 In that case, the House of Lords was
deciding a case where the defendant was not within the court's
in personam jurisdiction and it was therefore a case
concerning whether an injunction could form the basis for the grant
of service outside of the jurisdiction. The English courts have
never had to decide in the years since The Siskina whether
it had jurisdiction to grant a freezing injunction against a
defendant within the territorial jurisdiction in aid
