Cayman’s top judge promotes courts at global seminar

(CNS): The country’s chief justice was flying the flag for Cayman’s legal system at a global conference in Singapore recently. Addressing some 250 other judges, Anthony Smellie said the purpose of Cayman’s representation was to send a clear message that Cayman’s courts recognize and adhere to international standards for resolving cross-border insolvency problems and that the courts will give the necessary cooperation in ensuring that the principles that should govern international insolvencies are applied.

“My aim was to explain to conference participants that our courts adhere to international best practices and that there should be complete confidence in our processes,” the chief justice said, adding that this also helps to ensure that Cayman’s courts and court-appointed officials will in turn receive full cooperation from other jurisdictions.

Although the conference was open to other insolvency professionals, the seminar at which the CJ presented his paper was aimed primarily at judges “from many other countries, including many of the jurisdictions with which our courts must relate when dealing with international insolvencies,” Justice Smellie explained.

“A review of the Cayman Islands cases will reveal that the aspirations embodied in the principle of universality and in the mandate in the case law for the collective enforcement of rights in insolvency and in bankruptcy have, for quite some time, been shared, recognized and enforced by the courts,” he told his international judicial peers.

During his presentation Smellie pointed out that judicial international co-operation was a well-established tradition in Cayman Islands jurisprudence.

Describing some of the important decisions made in complex international cases, Smellie said the Cayman jurisprudence could be expected to develop well in pace with the legitimate demands of the international financial markets within the wider global economy.

The full conference was attended by some 600 judges and insolvency professionals.
Moderating the chief justice’s panel was a past president of Insol, the organizers, Neil Cooper.  Other panelists presenting with Smellie were Justice Alasdair Norris of the English High Court; Justice James Peck of the US Bankruptcy Court and of the Southern District of New York (where many US-based insolvency matters are heard), and Justice Jonathan Harris, of the High Court of Hong Kong.

Chief Justice Smellie's paper