Nov 2014
BERMUDA
PRIVY COUNCIL
CROSS-BORDER INSOLVENCY – WINDING UP – DISCLOSURE SOUGHT BY FOREIGN LIQUIDATORS – JUDICIAL ASSISTANCE – EXCESS OF JURISDICTION – EXTENT OF COMMON LAW WHERE EXISTING STATUTE – STANDING – PUBLIC POLICY – MODIFIED UNIVERSALISM
In the Singularis case, the Privy Council (Lords Neuberger, Mance, Clarke, Collins and Sumption) delivered an important Judgment: (1) about the jurisdiction of the Bermuda court to assist foreign liquidators by ordering the production of documents and information by persons in Bermuda and (2) defining the common law powers of assistance to foreign liquidators. The interplay or conflict between the decisions of the Privy Council and the UK Supreme Court in Cambridge Gas -v- Navigator [2007] 1 AC 508, Rubin -v- Eurofi nance [2012] UKSC 46 and Al Sabah -v- Grupo Torras [2005] 2 AC 333 has been a source of great debate and litigation in the world of cross-border insolvency. The Privy Council has now provided clarity to this area of the law.