Bermuda Case Law & Legislation

27 Jul 2018

Denis de Frias
In a post from 2017, we discussed how it was expected that Land Title Registration would go live in 2018. Since then, several important steps have been taken toward bringing the land title registration regime to Bermuda. The Land Title Registration Amendment Act 2018 has been passed both by Parliament and the Senate and is expected to be given Royal Assent very soon. This will then enable the Land Title Registry Office to begin accepting applications for voluntary registration. In this post, we have taken the opportunity to interview Land Title Registry Officer, Tim Stewart, to ask him all about voluntary registration, what the application procedure is, how long it is expected to take and cost, etc. See below our questions and Tim’s answers.
19:15 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Bermuda Government / Property Law
13 Jul 2018

Jeremy Leese
The Companies and Limited Liability Company (Initial Coin Offering) Amendment Act 2018 (the “ICO Act”) became operative on 9 July 2018 and the underlying Companies and Limited Liability Company (Initial Coin Offering) Regulations 2018 (the “ICO Regulations”, together with the ICO Act, the “ICO Legislation”) were published on 10 July 2018. The ICO Legislation governs all aspects of offering digital assets to the public in or from Bermuda. A digital asset covers anything that exists in binary format, including all forms of cryptocurrencies, digital coins and tokens issued in connection with an Initial Coin Offering (an “ICO”), which themselves are fundraising mechanisms similar to Initial Public Offerings, or IPOs, except that tokens, rather than shares, are issued.
20:02 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Company & Commercial Law
12 Jul 2018

Jeremy Leese
The General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) came into effect on 25 May 2018 and is designed to harmonise national data protection laws across the EU, while at the same time, modernising the law to address new technological developments. As a regulation, the GDPR is directly applicable, and therefore enforceable, in all 28 EU Member States. For an interesting summary, check out this infographic from the European Commission's official website. However, for those entities based outside of the EU, but who may do business within, or market to, the EU, or have EU clients, you may be asking: how will the GDPR affect you?  This question is the focus of this post, as entities based in the EU will, no doubt, have obtained advice locally with regard to their compliance requirements.
13:55 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Company & Commercial Law
14 May 2018

Jeremy Leese
Hot on the heels of the Companies and Limited Liability Company (Initial Coin Offering) Amendment Act 2018 (the “ICO Act”), which seeks to introduce a statutory framework for initial coin offerings (“ICOs”) and has now passed both the House of Assembly and the Senate, comes the tabling of the Digital Asset Business Act 2018 (the “DAB Act”).
18:47 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Bermuda Government / Company & Commercial Law
07 May 2018

Jeremy Leese
During April 2018, the Government of Bermuda tabled the Companies and Limited Liability Company (Initial Coin Offering) Amendment Act 2018 (the “ICO Act”), introducing a statutory framework for initial coin offerings (“ICOs”). By implementing this new legislation, the Bermuda Government is hoping to lay the foundation for the jurisdiction to become a leading global blockchain and ICO centre. The ICO Act regulates offerings of ‘digital assets', which are meant to capture all of the various categories of digital coins and tokens (whether they be utility, securitized, equity or otherwise) being issued as ICOs and via token sales. The purpose of the ICO Act is to only regulate those ICOs and token sales which are public crowd funding or similar type projects. It is not intended to regulate either private sales or those which are engaged in the business of pure virtual currency issuances. Digital asset offerings will be conducted in accordance with the requirements of published regulations as well as ongoing supervision and compliance requirements, including AML/ATF.
13:09 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Bermuda Government / Company & Commercial Law
13 Mar 2018

Jennifer Haworth
It is well recognised that in the context of certain types of banking transactions a presumption of undue influence can arise. An example of this would be where an individual is agreeing to charge a property which they own in order to secure the debts of their spouse. The question of whether a lack of independent legal advice invalidated a guarantee was considered recently in a case before the Chief Justice: Clarien Bank v E Kempe.
20:20 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Litigation & Dispute Resolution
07 Mar 2018

Andrew A. Martin
It is always reassuring when a decision of the court validates and confirms the adage that the law is largely just “common sense with knobs on” (in the words of Lord Sumption). The loser in a recent injunction case wanted to be able to rely upon privileged information contained in the bill of costs submitted by the winner, and to use that information against the winner in the arbitration proceedings that were pending between the parties. This is pretty outrageous, and one would readily expect that this would not be permissible.  It isn’t.
16:57 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Litigation & Dispute Resolution
04 Dec 2017

Fozeia Rana-Fahy
In the matter of G Trust [2017] SC (Bda) 98 Civ (15 November 2017) In the 2015 case of Re BCD Trust (confidentiality Order) [2015] Bda LR 208, the Chief Justice had confirmed that with respect to administration of trust cases, proceedings could be anonymised and dealt with as private applications where there was no obvious public interest in knowing about an internal trust administration matter. In a recent ruling from November 2017, the Chief Justice has re-confirmed his previous finding with respect to confidentiality orders in the context of trust administration matters.
19:44 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Wills, Trusts & Estates