BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Hall Taylor KC, Richard Brown, Tim Wright and Simon Hall, Carey Olsen
14.2 Growth Areas The most prominent area of growth in the BVI is dis- putes relating to digital assets and cryptocurrency. The BVI is a popular jurisdiction for the incorpora- tion of cryptocurrency issuers, exchanges and other intermediaries dealing in digital assets. As a result, the BVI Commercial Court is seeing an increasing number of claims concerning crypto-assets, including major insolvencies – for example, the liquidation of the Three Arrows Capital cryptocurrency hedge fund. The courts are also seeing an increase in substantial claims arising from trust and probate disputes, which is likely the result of succession issues related to older wealth creators who set up offshore structures some time ago. There has also been an increase in arbitration-related matters, in particular applications to enforce foreign arbitral awards over assets in the BVI.
The person against whom the arbitral award (both New York Convention and non-New York Convention awards) was given may challenge enforcement on cer- tain grounds under Section 83 of the Arbitration Act. However, given that the burden on the defendant is to show otherwise, the starting point under the Arbitra- tion Act (especially with regard to New York Conven- tion awards) is that enforcement of arbitral awards is mandatory unless one of the limited exceptions can be established. The BVI courts generally take a pro-arbitration approach to enforcement, and will not usually refuse to enforce, and will take a narrow view of public policy exceptions. 14. Outlook 14.1 Proposals for Dispute Resolution Reform Various amendments to the EC CPR came into force on 31 July 2023, the most significant of which was to introduce an entirely new regime for service on non- BVI defendants, largely removing the requirement for permission to serve a claim out of the jurisdiction. See 3.3 Jurisdictional Requirements for a Defendant .
141 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook