Law Writing, Immigration, and Globalization in the British Virgin Islands

In this article Mr. Bill Maurer addresses a fundamental tension at work in the British Virgin Islands: while British Virgin Islanders (BVIslanders) proudly term themselves a "law and order" people and seek to distinguish themselves from other Caribbean peoples, the territory remains as wedded as ever to its British rulers and the West. Mr. Maurer first notes that when a colonial people begins to view itself as essentially different from its rulers, it may begin a concomitant move toward self-rule. He shows that while the BVI exhibits many attributes of such a territory, BVIslanders consider their ties to Britain a critical element of their uniqueness and thus self-rule is never seriously discussed. The author illustrates this paradox by describing the passage and effects of the BVI's International Business Companies Ordinance, a law that established the BVI as a tax haven. He argues that while BVlslanders are proud to call the law their first truly local one, in fact the local legislature was forced as a result of this law to submit to increased foreign regulatory scrutiny and to enact recommendations set out in a Coopers and Lybrand study commissioned by the British. He next points out that while BVIslanders support most aspects of the Ordinance, they have sharply criticized the implementation of a Crown-appointed board designed to oversee the dependent territories' financial services sector and guard against drug money laundering and other illicit activities. Mr. Maurer views this controversy as further evidence of the B VI's search for a national identity within the locally-accepted confines of colonial rule.