A delegation of top financial and legal officers from the Cayman Islands has gone to the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg where they are challenging the EU's failure to respond to a request from a consultation period prior to the adoption of the savings and tax directive.
The party is comprised of attorney-at-law David Rich, Assistant Financial Secretary Deborah Drummond and Head of the Financial Secretariat Dr. Chris Rose. The team is augmented by strong legal representation with Eleanor Sharpston QC reputed to be the lead counsel, according to the Cayman Net News service.
Whilst no details of the case's progress have been forthcoming, the news service has been informed by a legal source that the team of barristers are confident of winning their argument.
A report by several of the Islands' leading attorneys outlining the Caymanian case stated:
"In our view, we consider it strongly arguable that the EU does not enjoy competence under the European Community Treaty to direct Member States to legislate for their associated or dependent territories in the manner contemplated by the Draft Directive."
"We accordingly advise the Government of the Cayman Islands to challenge the legality of the Draft Directive under Article 230 of the Treaty if the Council of the European Union adopts the draft directive in its current form."
A central pillar of the Caymanian defence is the contention that the jurisdictional reach of UK law in relation to the directive does not extend to the Cayman Islands. The statement continued:
"We should add, for the sake of completeness, that there are grounds for contending, purely as a matter of English law, that the United Kingdom does not enjoy the constitutional power to impose legislation upon the Cayman Islands without its consent."
The defence added that despite the fact the UK had assured ECOFIN ministers that automatic exchange of information with the Cayman Islands will commence: "we advise that it is questionable whether the United Kingdom retains the constitutional power to give such assurance absent the consent of the legislature of the Cayman Islands."
Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush also pointed out that the UK government had broken its promise to undertake a study on the impact of the EU directive on the Cayman Islands under the 1999 White Paper entitled "Partnership for Progress and Prosperity: Britain and the Overseas Territories".
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