The balance between open justice and confidentiality in offshore trust proceedings

In this article on the balance between open justice and confidentiality in offshore trust proceedings, the authors address disputes that may arise in territories of the UK. These jurisdictions include the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Each jurisdiction has a separate jurisprudence but to a large extent it is based on the English common law especially in the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. As such each jurisdiction is not bound by, but will take into consideration, judicial decisions in the other jurisdictions. As trusts often concern private family assets there is generally a strong desire for trust litigation to be conducted in private. This desire for discretion can be seen, however, to be in conflict with the well-established two dimensional principle of open justice, that the (a) public is entitled to attend court proceedings and (b) media should not be discouraged from publishing fair and accurate reports of court proceedings.

This article was originally published in Westlaw Today, see the online article here or download the PDF.