Over the past 40 years, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) has transformed into a global financial hub, and much of this success can be traced back to the solid legal foundation laid by leaders like Dame Janice Pereira. As the first Virgin Islander appointed to His Majesty King Charles III’s Privy Council, Dame Janice has been instrumental in guiding the BVI’s legal evolution. In this interview, she reflects on her remarkable journey and the critical role the legal system has played in fostering economic growth and international respect for the BVI.
Dame Janice was born in the picturesque island of Virgin Gorda, BVI and graduated as valedictorian from high school at the early age of 17 years. Recognised for her talent, the Government allowed her to pursue her academic ambitions a year earlier and granted her a scholarship leading to a law degree at The University of the West Indies.
The success of her studies is evident as she was called to the Bar of the British Virgin Islands in 1981 and proceeded to play a critical role as the Registrar of Companies when the International Business Companies Act was passed in 1984. Then up until 2003, she held Associate Attorney and Attorney roles at J.S. Archibald and Company, Harney Westwood & Riegels and McW Todman & Co. She also served as a law partner in Farara GeorgeCreque & Kerins and engaged in active practice at the Bar in the conduct of matters at all levels of the Courts from 1985 to 2003 in Tortola, BVI.
In 2003, the Dame joined the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court as a High Court Judge and later was elevated to the position of Justice of Appeal in 2009. Shortly after on the 24th October 2012, she was sworn in as the first female Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and remained at the centre of driving change in the region, resulting in her being awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II in 2013.
Honourable Justice Pereira DBE has both witnessed and been crucial to more than forty years of innovation within the British Virgin Islands (BVI) commercial legal system. Its development has laid the foundations for the BVI to become a globally renowned international financial and business centre.
The Dame’s latest appointment to His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, following her retirement as Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, makes her the first Virgin Islander to sit on the Privy Council.
Speaking with Business Insight, Dame Janice reflects on the seismic changes the BVI’s legal system has undergone since the launch of the first International Business Company, and what she believes will drive further growth for the BVI in the future.
FROM PLANNING TO PRACTICALITY: THE FIRST IBC
Investment mediated through BVI Business Companies plays a vital role in the global economy, facilitating $1.4 trillion in cross-border trade and investment, equivalent to 1.5 per cent of global GDP, and supporting around 2.3 million jobs, globally. But winding the clock back 40 years to the launch of the first International Business Company, such an impact on the global stage would have seemed an unlikely outcome.
Like many countries, the BVI faced the economic impact of the USA’s mass repeal of double tax relief treaties. To combat its impact, a group of forward-looking visionaries within the legal sector and Government took radical action to help establish the BVI as a leading international business centre. At the heart of this was spotting the need for creative, flexible and business-friendly corporate vehicles, incorporated in the BVI, underpinned by a rigorous legal framework. In 1984, The International Business Companies Act was born, lighting the touchpaper for a new era of innovation in financial services.
But legislation alone would not ensure the success of the International Business Company (IBC). It needed a robust legal framework, new infrastructure and creation of the registry. In her role as Registrar at the time, Dame Pereira helped shape this. In her words, her team helped define “how the registry of companies would work and what the Registrar of Companies would be required to do”.
The real test of the legislation, and the work that followed to enable it to work in practice came with registration of the first IBC – a landmark moment for both the BVI and its financial services community that Dame Janice recalls vividly. “When the Act was passed and the first IBC company was registered, needless to say it was a feat. Having accomplished that, you’ve reached this far - and now it was being road tested. I felt a sense of pride really that we were able to, to get it up and running”.
Innovative though the IBC Act was, success did not happen overnight; there was slow growth in the registration of companies until a watershed moment followed years later. Some cite the Over the past 40 years, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) has transformed into a global financial hub, and much of this success can be traced back to the solid legal foundation laid by leaders like Dame Janice Pereira. As the first Virgin Islander appointed to His Majesty King Charles III’s Privy Council, Dame Janice has been instrumental in guiding the BVI’s legal evolution. In this interview, she reflects on her remarkable journey and the critical role the legal system has played in fostering economic growth and international respect for the BVI. BUSINESS INSIGHT | Future-Proofing: 40 Years of BVI Business Companies 4 date of 8/8/88 as a big bang moment, with a boost from Chinese companies choosing to incorporate on a date held to be extremely lucky in Chinese Culture – kickstarting the consistent demand for IBCs from Asia. Dame Janice cites the turmoil in Panama in 1989 as a key driver. “It was really quite something, you know, hundreds of companies that were simply coming, migrating to the Virgin Islands. At that time I was in private practice. The fax machine was then the premier medium of communication, and I recall continuous reams of faxes containing documents for company incorporations.”
THE FIRST DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT: BUILDING CAPACITY IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM
As demand for IBCs took off, Dame Janice noted how important it became to build sufficient capacity in the commercial legal system to ensure an efficient and responsive experience for international companies, without compromising on the legal process or scrutiny applied. “I would be sitting there managing the court and managing company incorporations and we would have boxes of new companies, sometimes up to 300 in a day to be registered. We needed to build efficiency. It needed to be speedy, we needed to demonstrate that we had the capacity to really operate and run this. I was recommending that the entire corporate registry be moved out of the Supreme Court so that it has its own Registrar, its own staff to become more efficient, more responsive in terms of the work that was needed, without undermining the legal structures that underpin it.”
SPECIALISED SUPPORT: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMERCIAL COURT
The growth in the number of IBCs incorporating on the island played a critical role in the development of the BVI’s professional and legal services ecosystem. And at the same time, the strength of its legal system has become one of the reasons it is a trusted financial centre.
With an increasing number of companies came an increasing number of disputes requiring litigation, a trend Dame Janice picks out as a milestone moment for the commercial legal services industry. “I recall seeing when the first bit of litigation came about as a result of a dispute. I call it when the IBCs came of age, and disputes were likely to come about…That was in or around1994.”
While litigation continued to increase, and as the British Virgin Islands grew into a pre-eminent financial services hub, it also placed additional demands on the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC), the superior court of record for the British Virgin Islands used to settle legal disputes. “We needed now another tier which would ensure that disputes involving BCs would be determined , whether disputes about ownership of shares, liquidation, or shareholder agreements… In essence, a specialist court to deal with commercial disputes.”
The Commercial Division of the Supreme Court, commonly known as the Commercial Court, was established in 2009. Fully independent, and funded through the government, its physical
situation on the BVI represented a coup for the British Virgin Islands in relation to the other eight jurisdictions that are also members of the ECSC, reflecting the quantity and quality of commercial litigation in the BVI, and reinforcing the legal system that underpins the BVI’s role as a leading financial centre on the global stage. As Dame Janice highlights, “the BVI, because of its high volume of companies, generates a large volume of commercial litigation involving, in many instances, novel and complex issues, and large sums of money. The standard of legal preparation and advocacy is also high. This ensures that judges receive high quality assistance in keeping with the highest traditions of the legal profession notwithstanding the hardfought nature of the litigation.”
EMBRACING TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION TO SUPPORT GROWTH
Over the past 40 years, since the first IBC was incorporated, the BVI and its commercial legal system has embraced innovation and best practice in order to lay the foundations for the British Virgin Island’s growth. Nowhere is this more apparent than with technology.
Under Dame Janice’s leadership, the Court has successfully digitalized, bringing better resiliency, efficiency and case management for all parties. The BVI was one of the countries to pilot the digitalisation of the ECSC in the early 2000s, implementing a server-based digital case management software. “We dreamed of a system which would allow e-filing from anywhere, anytime and internet-based which would serve not only the legal profession on the front end but also allow court staff and judicial officers on the back end to manage their case load.” Working with the global technology company, Crimson Logic, the Court developed and deployed a bespoke product that proved its worth in ensuring operational continuity in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and during the global pandemic. Embracing innovation hasn’t just improved the resiliency and experience of the legal system in the BVI, it has burnished its reputation for adopting best practice for an international audience. As Dame Janice points out, it has been “hailed by many as a game-changer in the delivery of court services across the OECS region, in terms of its ease and accessibility from anywhere in the world.”
THE NEXT STAGE OF EVOLUTION: WHAT THE NEXT FORTY YEARS HOLDS
Looking ahead, it’s clear that Dame Janice does not envisage the Commercial Court will stand still or rest on its laurels. Greater demand for financial services within the BVI requires greater capacity within the legal system, and it must balance legal rigor with attractiveness on an international stage – a familiar trend over the past 40 years. “The Commercial Court has to position itself as it were to be attractive to persons who are seeking a jurisdiction for the resolution of their dispute, whether it’s through the courts, whether it’s through the sister regime, which is arbitration and other types of arrangements, for example.”
She sees it as important to invest in the physical infrastructure of the court, and increase the resourcing of the Court through adding a Master to support the two full-time judges, allowing their focus on more complex cases: “Why should a judge of the commercial court have to take time out to deal with simple corporate, restorations? Perhaps a master can take that load off, deal with those things.”
One thing that won’t change is the caliber of judges that have sat on the Commercial Court, nor the Court’s relationship with the Privy Council as the final court of appeal. These are key to the Court’s international credibility and influence. “Having the court manned by highly experienced judges is important to the international reputation of the Court and the role it plays in developing the jurisprudence referred to and followed not only in our region but in other courts around the world. Just recently, the position taken by the BVI Court in respect of the interplay between liquidation and arbitration was highlighted and upheld by the Privy Council which went further in holding that a longaccepted decision of the English Court of Appeal should no longer be followed.”
LESSONS LEARNED OVER A PRESTIGIOUS CAREER
After an era of exceptional service, Dame Janice announced her retirement from ECSC earlier in 2024, and was subsequently appointed to the King’s Privy Council. She notes of this latest appointment she feels “deeply humbled and singularly honoured to have been selected to serve in this role”. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) has also since announced that Dame Janice has accepted an invitation from the JCPC’s chairman Lord Reed to sit with the JCPC in London for a week in December 2024 to hear scheduled appeals.
The lessons she has learned over such a prestigious legal career should inspire and encourage the next intake of legal professionals. Her advice to the next generation of British Virgin Islanders is that hard work and ambition pays off. “You must be able to simply grasp the opportunity, work hard and be passionate at what you do. And that, in essence, will determine how far you go.” And for those that do, the sky is the limit: “If you ask me whether I had a plan to be on the bench of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, the answer is definitely no… but that opportunity presented itself and I thought long and hard about it and, and felt this is service that I can give, not just to the Virgin Islands, but to the wider Caribbean in terms of the regional court.”
Dame Janice is a difficult act to follow, but her ethos as a leader demonstrates how she has been at the center of much innovation in the British Virgin Islands over the past 40 years, and should set the example for those who aim to build on her success: “It is important as a leader to be inclusive. To be ready to listen to the ideas of others. To build on those ideas, discuss them, include them in your vision and having them understand what your vision is.”