Guernsey: New Companies Legislation

New companies legislation is being introduced in Guernsey. The January 2008 Billet D'État (the order paper for Guernsey's Parliament) included the draft text of the new Act, titled the Companies (Guernsey) Law 2008. The Act was published in volumes two and three of the legislation Billet D'État. The Act does not become law until it has received the approval of The Queen in Council. This is likely to take place within the next few months in order that the Act can come into force in July.

Consultation on the new Act began in 2005, when a green paper was published. The new Act updates the Companies (Guernsey) Laws 1994 to 1996 and in content it borrows from other jurisdictions including New Zealand, the Cayman Islands, the UK, Scotland and Jersey. For further information, click here.

Company law reform is proving popular in the Crown dependencies. The Isle of Man introduced a new Companies Act in 2006 (about which see: overview and the Act).

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Postscript: On 7 May, the Companies (Guernsey) Law 2008 was approved by the Queen in Council (see here).

Postscript 2: See this post for a further update (June 2008) and a link to the most recent consolidated version of the legislation.