Bermuda Law Blog

22 Sep 2015

Jessica Kemmenoe
Bermuda Press (Holdings) Ltd. (“BPHL”), the parent company for the local daily newspaper The Royal Gazette, commenced proceedings against the Registrar of the Supreme Court (the “Registrar”) following the Registrar’s refusal of BPHL’s application to obtain copies of Affidavits and Exhibits filed in a case pending in the Supreme Court. The case involved a dispute between Allied Development Partners and the Government of Bermuda with reference to the Hamilton Waterfront. BPHL sought to challenge the accepted legal view that documentation being used in ongoing legal proceedings is not open to public inspection, even if the parties to the proceedings do not oppose access to the documentation.
20:38 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Litigation & Dispute Resolution
28 Aug 2015

Brian Holdipp
The vast majority of partnerships on the Bermuda registry are said to be private or closed-end funds. Hailed as an important part of the government’s efforts to achieve growth in the asset management area, amendments have been made to partnership and company legislation to enhance the flexibility and efficiency of Bermuda exempted and limited partnerships and to boost the desirability to use Bermuda as a jurisdiction to establish private equity funds and asset-holding structures.
20:25 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Company & Commercial Law
20 Aug 2015

Cynthia Williams
The Bermuda Monetary Authority (“BMA”) held an informational session on the 24th of July, 2014 regarding the licensing of a CSP. Ms. Tamara Anfossi of the BMA announced that the CSP regime commencement date is pending amendments to the Exchange Control Act 1972 (“Foreign Exchange”). It is anticipated that the amendments to Foreign Exchange will be passed by Parliament prior to January, 2016.
19:40 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Company & Commercial Law
20 Aug 2015

Jeremy Leese
Bermuda is firmly established as the offshore jurisdiction of choice in aviation finance; however, one missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle within this sector has been the non-implementation in Bermuda of what is known as the Cape Town Convention. The Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment (together the “Convention”) came into force on 1 March, 2006. The Convention facilitates aircraft finance transactions by providing a regularised electronic international registry of “international interests” over moveable property (the “International Registry”), such International Registry being recognised in all Contracting States (being countries which have implemented the Convention). The Convention also sets out a framework for dispute management as well as remedies and relief available to creditors.
19:36 / Company & Commercial Law
02 Jul 2015

Jennifer Haworth
In May of this year, the Attorney General introduced two Bills in the House of Assembly that contained several measures aimed at reforming Bermuda’s criminal law, with the goal of enhancing efficiency. The Disclosure and Criminal Reform Act 2015 (the “Reform Bill”) and The Criminal Jurisdiction and Procedure Act 2015 (the “Procedure Bill”) (together the “Bills”) were passed by the House of Assembly on 5 June 2015. They remain to be debated in the Senate.
16:19 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Litigation & Dispute Resolution
27 Apr 2015

Fozeia Rana-Fahy
- In an anonymised ruling of December 2014, In the Matter of the Estate of PQR, Deceased [2014] Bda No. 205, Chief Justice Kawaley analysed the legality of a forfeiture clause within a Bermuda will. The point of construction was one that had not been determined as a matter of Bermuda law and turned on the divergence between commonwealth case law (more hostile to the validity of forfeiture clauses) and English case law (less hostile to the notion of seeking to give reasonable effect to forfeiture clauses).
19:33 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation / Wills, Trusts & Estates
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