REGIONAL COMMITTEES: ASIA
The First Case of a Chinese Court Recognizing and Enforcing a British Virgin Islands( BVI) Court Bankruptcy Order
By Jingtao Liu 1
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Preamble
Cross-border insolvency cooperation remains a formidable challenge in contemporary international judicial practice, particularly within the framework of China’ s development of the foreign-related rule of law. Driven by the endogenous requirements of this legal evolution, Chinese courts have, over the past several years, actively advocated for a judicial philosophy of proactive comity and have advanced pilot programs for cross-border insolvency judicial practice in cooperation with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Under this background, in 2025, a court in Shandong
14 Province of China, for the first time recognized the legal validity of an insolvency order issued by the BVI Commercial Court and provided judicial assistance for its enforcement. This milestone case is poised to exert a profound influence on the mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments between offshore jurisdictions and the Chinese judiciary in the field of cross-border insolvency.
I. Basic Facts of the Case
On 25 March 2021, the shareholders of Bintan Mining Corporation( hereinafter " Company B "), a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands( BVI), resolved by written resolution to wind up the company. Y was appointed as liq-
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Partner of Zhong Lun Law Firm LLP, Insolvency & Restructuring Group, a member of III( International Insolvency Institute). uidator of Company B, and such appointment was approved at a meeting of the company ' s creditors. On 11 May 2021, upon application by liquidator Y, the BVI Commercial Court issued an order recognizing Y as the company ' s liquidator and authorizing Y to take corresponding measures, including the preservation, investigation, inquiry, and collection of the company ' s assets in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region( or in any place outside the BVI where necessary). On 31 May 2021, the Court of First Instance of the High Court of Hong Kong issued an order recognizing both the winding-up resolution of Company B and the appointment of liquidator Y. Subsequently, liquidator Y applied to a court in Shandong Province for recognition and enforcement of the aforementioned orders issued by the BVI court, pursuant to Article 5 of the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of the People ' s Republic of China and Articles 281 and 282 of the then-applicable Civil Procedure Law of the People ' s Republic of China. II. Judicial Reasoning This case concerns an application by liquidator Y for the recognition and enforcement of a bankruptcy order issued by the court of the British Virgin Islands( BVI), and is in essence a matter of judicial assistance involving the recognition and enforcement of a final judgment rendered by a foreign court. The review process adheres to the principle of formal examination, whereby the court scrutinizes only the relevant procedural requirements without conducting a substantive re-examination of the bankruptcy order issued by the BVI court. The core legal basis for the court ' s review of this case is found in Articles 298 and 299 of the Civil Procedure
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