Introduction

• Author: Rose-Marie B Antoine
• Profession: PhD, is an Attorney-at-Law and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus as well as Programme Director of the Faculty?s LL.M. Programme
• Pages: 9-12

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Introduction

Rose-Marie B. Antoine

THE OFFSHORE SECTOR continues to be one of the most important in the

Commonwealth Caribbean. Despite the challenges faced by the OECD’s

controversial charge of ‘unfair tax competition,’ the sector is still among the

largest income earners in countries like the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin

Islands, The Bahamas, St. Kitts and Nevis, and makes significant economic

contributions to the other offshore jurisdictions in the region.

The Caribbean has been leading the way in creating original and innovative

legislation for the offshore sector, and developing the related jurisprudence.

In fact, the International Business Company, a legislative concept which has

been exported worldwide, was a creation of the British Virgin Islands. In

1998, the Faculty of Law recognised early that this was a subject, not only of

national and regional importance, but also of great academic significance. It

posed intriguing intellectual questions impacting on several legal disciplines

and new subject areas. These significant factors led to the idea of an Offshore

Law Workshop. Another important reason was the relative absence of serious

academic inquiry, of value to legal practitioners and investors. It was viewed

as an important part of the intellectual mandate of the Faculty of Law, the

premier legal institution in the Caribbean Community, to elevate the discussion

on the law of offshore, or, as some prefer, international financial sectors. The

workshop was designed to be more than the then common ‘networking’

experience for practitioners. It sought to provide an opportunity for substantial

legal analysis and learning. It was also an opportunity for the faculty to

achieve some of its important goals, continuing high quality legal education,

financial sustainability and more direct outreach to its regional constituents.

Over a hundred persons attended the workshop, demonstrating the market

value and the need for such quality law workshops.

The collection of papers has been reviewed, making changes where

necessary to keep up to date with some of the legislative and jurisprudential

changes that have occurred. Two papers, those of Dr. Shazeeda Ali, on ‘Money

Laundering’ and Ms. Vernese Brathwaithe, on ‘Captive Insurance,’ were

commissioned, in order to make the collection more complete. An earlier

paper by the editor, entitled ‘The Protection of Offshore Confidentiality -