The British Virgin Islands is an idyllic collection of islands
in the Caribbean. More importantly for commercial lawyers, they are
home to about 950,000 corporate vehicles, limited partnerships and
trusts, which represent about 40% of the world's offshore
structures. It is therefore likely that practitioners will come
across the BVI at some point, given that the sheer number of
structures has led to a large number of BVI court disputes. The BVI
is a British dependent territory, and so naturally English common
law is generally applied; a number of BVI statutes are also based
on English law. However, there are important differences in some
BVI statutes, such as the BVI's very user-friendly Business
Companies Act, and some subtle differences such as in the BVI's
Insolvency Act. There are also some areas where BVI does not have
an equivalent English statute, such as Section 25 of the English
Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act, which provides the English
court with a
