For most English lawyers advising on transactions involving British Virgin Islands (BVI) companies, the similarities and differences between BVI law and English law concepts are often one of the biggest surprises.
As a British Overseas Dependent Territory, the BVI’s company law statute, the BVI Business Companies Act (BCA) 2004 follows English company law principles and concepts in many respects and indeed, the BVI courts, in considering questions of BVI law, will apply English case law, together with the case law of other common law jurisdictions. Like many other offshore jurisdictions, the BCA also contains certain concepts such as statutory mergers, segregated portfolio companies and continuations into and out of the BVI, which have no equivalent under English law.
