Arbitration in the British Virgin Islands: Legislation, Court Assistance, Confidentiality, Enforcement (New York Convention/ICSID), Interim Relief, Insolvency, State Immunity and the BVI International Arbitration Centre

Published by a LexisNexis Arbitration expert

Practice notes

Introduction

This Practice Note aims to present a succinct outline of the arbitration environment in the Territory of the Virgin Islands (the ‘BVI’). For background purposes, the BVI is a British Overseas Territory. It possesses its own constitution (the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 2007, which superseded the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 1976), its own legislature, which is responsible for enacting laws, and its own distinct system of government. UK law forms part of BVI law where it is expressly received into local law or where it constitutes an element of the common law (Common Law Declaration of Application Act (Cap 13), section 2). Note: the cases mentioned below are reported by LexisNexis®

The legislative framework

The BVI’s first arbitration statute was the Arbitration Act 1976 (the ‘1976 Act’). The 1976 Act was not amended or updated following its original enactment and remained comparatively narrow in scope and detail overall...

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Hussein Haeri , KC

Withersworldwide

Hussein Haeri KC is a partner at Withers in London where he leads the firm's public international law group and co-heads the firm's international arbitration group. He also jointly leads Withers' Middle East special interest group. Hussein has extensive experience of working on international legal and dispute resolution matters in London, Paris, New York and South Africa for almost 20 years. He has worked as counsel and advocate on arbitrations under all the major rules, including ICSID, UNCITRAL, LCIA, ICC, SCC and SIAC Rules, as well as in ad hoc arbitrations. His clients include governments, multinational corporations and international organisations. He has served as counsel in State-State proceedings before the International Court of Justice and in national courts, including the courts of England and Wales, on public international law issues. Hussein's public international law practice includes advising governments and...

Sara-Jane Knock

Withersworldwide

Sara-Jane is a partner in our litigation and arbitration team.Based in the British Virgin Islands and heading up the Withers BVI office, Sara-Jane is recognised by Chambers Global and Legal 500 BVI as a leader in her field, advising on a wide range of matters from commercial, contractual and finance disputes to insolvency, fraud and asset tracing. Sara-Jane also advises on probate and trust matters, both contentious and non-contentious. Working together with her colleagues in other Withers' offices around the world, Sara-Jane strives to provide her clients with a dedicated global team, ready to tackle cross-border cases with local on-shore and offshore experience. She regularly acts for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), trustees, beneficiaries, insolvency practitioners, creditors, companies, directors, shareholders and officer holders, either directly or via intermediaries. She also works with key intermediaries, service providers and foreign lawyers in various...

Abdul Sattar

Withersworldwide

Abdul is a knowledge lawyer in the international arbitration and public international law team at Withers LLP. He is responsible for keeping the team up to date, legal training, ensuring know-how is shared and promoting the practice. Prior to joining Withers, Abdul spent a decade in private practice acting for a range of clients involved in cross border disputes. He has extensive experience of high-value arbitration (under various institutional rules), litigation and mediation. ...

Dr. Jan Alessandrini

Withersworldwide

Jan is an Associate in Withers' Litigation and Arbitration team and is currently based in the firm's BVI office (having previously been based in London). He is dual qualified (England & Wales and BVI). His practice focuses on commercial litigation, commercial and investment-treaty arbitration, (contentious) insolvency as well as art law and public international law. Recent case highlights include representing a beneficiary in a trust dispute, representing two companies in a shareholder dispute in the Court of Appeal; acting for the applicant in a first-of-its-kind BVI High Court challenge of a Company Creditor Arrangement ('CCA'); acting for a large creditor of Dolfin Financial (UK) Ltd in Special Administration; representing the applicant in an application for special leave to appeal in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; acting for a government in a commission of inquiry. As a solicitor advocate, he may appear in the BVI High Court and Court of...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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