¶ 2501
Overview
The subject of this chapter. The protections examined in Parts II to IV of this book are directions to a court. Section 7(6) of the Trusts Act tells the Belize court what it shall not do with a claim under foreign law. Section 34 of the Limited Liability Companies Act tells it what proceedings it shall not entertain. Section 49 of the Foundations Act tells the foundation council not to act on a foreign order without the Belize court's order. Each provision operates through litigation in the High Court of Belize, and each is only as useful as the procedure by which a trustee, a member, a council or a creditor brings the question before that court. This chapter describes that procedure: the rules that govern a trust or entity claim from issue to appeal, the court's power to grant interim relief, the trustee's application for directions, the court's approval of momentous decisions, and the rules on privacy, costs and deposits that shape the economics of a claim.
The governing instruments. Civil procedure in the High Court is governed by the Senior Courts (Civil Procedure) Rules 2025, which came into force on January 2, 2025, subject to the transitional provisions in Part 72. Senior Courts (Civil Procedure) Rules 2025, S.I. No. 1 of 2025, r. 2.1(2) (Belize) ("CPR"). The Rules apply to civil proceedings in the civil division of the High Court of Justice, but not to insolvency proceedings (including winding up), non-contentious probate or family proceedings. CPR r. 2.2(3)(a). The Senior Courts Act 2022 vests in the High Court the jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice in England, to be exercised as nearly as possible in accordance with English law and practice for the time being, and directs that where no Belize provision governs a matter of practice, the practice of the English High Court applies. Senior Courts Act 2022, No. 27 of 2022, ss. 25(1)–(2), 66(a), as quoted in ConocoPhillips Petrozuata B.V. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Claim No. 110 of 2025, ¶¶ 74–75 (H.C. Belize Aug. 12, 2025) (see supra ¶ 220.05). The three statutes examined in this book add their own procedural rules: the Trusts Act's provisions on the court's jurisdiction, powers, directions and costs (ss. 57–60), the LLC Act's rules on exclusive jurisdiction, deposits and hearings in camera (ss. 36–38, 96), and the Foundations Act's rules on directions, foreign orders, deposits, limitation and hearings in camera (ss. 49, 52, 53, 98, 101, 106).
What is new in the 2025 Rules. The 2025 Rules replaced the rules of 2005 and were the first general revision of Belize civil procedure in two decades (see supra ¶ 280.01). Three changes matter most to the subject of this book. First, the Rules contain an express gateway for service out of the jurisdiction of an application for "interim relief where proceedings have been or are about to be commenced in a foreign jurisdiction." CPR r. 7.3(11). Second, the freezing order is defined to include an order restraining a party "from dealing with any assets whether located within the jurisdiction or not." CPR r. 17.1(1)(f)(ii). Third, an application by a trustee concerned with the administration of a trust is deemed to be heard in private unless the court otherwise orders. CPR r. 2.7(6)(b). The first two strengthen the hand of a creditor who sues abroad and wishes to preserve assets in Belize pending judgment. The third gives the trustee of a Belize trust a private forum in which to seek the court's directions on a foreign order.
Plan of the chapter. Paragraph 2510 describes the High Court's jurisdiction over trusts and entities and the forms of claim. Paragraph 2520 examines privacy. Paragraph 2530 follows a claim through case management, disclosure, evidence and trial. Paragraph 2540 addresses costs, security for costs and the deposits that the LLC Act and the Foundations Act require of creditors. Paragraph 2550 examines interim relief, including freezing orders in aid of foreign proceedings after Broad Idea International Ltd. v. Convoy Collateral Ltd. Paragraph 2560 covers service out of the jurisdiction, relief in aid of foreign proceedings and evidence for foreign courts. Paragraphs 2570 and 2580 address the trustee's application for directions and the court's approval of momentous decisions, with Cotton v. Earl of Cardigan as the leading illustration. Paragraph 2590 covers strike-out, appeals, a procedural timetable and a checklist for the trustee who receives a foreign order or a claim.
Relation to other chapters. Chapter 2 describes the courts themselves and the route of appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice. Chapter 4 examines the recognition and registration of foreign judgments, including the procedure under Part 71 of the Rules. Chapter 7 examines the trustee's duties when a foreign order is made, and chapter 11 the direction in section 7(6). This chapter does not repeat those treatments. It describes how the questions they raise reach the court and how the court disposes of them. Chapter 26 then examines what foreign courts have done with Belize trusts and entities (see infra ch. 26).
The trustee's perspective and the creditor's. The chapter is written for both sides. The trustee of a Belize trust, the manager of a Belize LLC and the council of a Belize foundation will use the procedures described here to obtain directions, to resist foreign orders and to defend claims. A creditor who holds a foreign judgment, or who expects to obtain one, will use them to bring a fresh claim in Belize, to seek interim relief, and to obtain evidence. The statutes examined in Parts II to IV give the defending side substantial advantages, and the procedural rules described here are the means by which those advantages are asserted or tested.