Chief justice joins elite insolvency body
(CNS Business): The International Insolvency Institute has invited the chief justice of the Cayman Islands, Anthony Smellie, to become a member of the invitation-only organisation. Accepting the invitation, the chief justice said it wasn’t just a personal credit but reflected the quality of Cayman’s courts. The selective non-profit body includes leading practitioners, academics, judges and regulators in the international insolvency field, and president James Peck said the organisation was “very eager” for the CJ to join.
He said Smellie’s “outstanding reputation and experience” made him an ideal candidate for membership in the institute, adding the current membership of only 331 includes representatives from more than 45 countries. Peck said that since its inception the institute had made “significant contributions to the development and improvement of fair and effective insolvency laws and practices around the world”.
Chief Justice Smellie was nominated by Allan Gropper, retired judge from the United States Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York and a member of the institute’s Judicial Committee. His nomination was seconded by Richard Snowden, a High Court of Justice, England and Wales, and Justice Ian RC Kawaley, the chief justice of Bermuda.
“This recognition is not only a personal one but also an acknowledgement of the high calibre of the Cayman Courts and their judges and of the FSD in particular,” Smellie stated.
Delegations from the institute regularly participate in working groups of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
The institute has been awarded Special Consultative Status to the United Nations and has developed a close working relationship with the American College of Bankruptcy, with which the organisation has collaborated on and published guidelines for court-to-court communications in cross-border cases.
Category: Court Business
