Belize
- Overview
- The World of Business
- Foreign Investments
- Legal System
- Offshore Legal and Tax Regimes
- General Information
- Taxation of International Business Companies (IBCs)
- International Business Companies (IBCs) Activities
- Taxation of Trusts
- Taxation of International Banks
- Belizean International Bank Activities
- Taxation of Foreign Employees of Offshore Operations
- Exchange Control
- Currency
- Privacy
Legal System
Belize’s legal system is based on English Common Law supplemented by local legislation.
Generally speaking common law, as opposed to civil or socialist law, is a type of legal system where legislation is continually evolving. Courts refine and create laws on a case-by-case basis. When resolving a legal dispute, in the ideal world, a common law court looks to precedents set by other courts. What this means is that when a court is resolving a dispute, it must look to see if a similar dispute was resolved in the past. If one has, then the present day court is obligated to following the same reasoning used in the prior case; this principle is called stare decisis. On the other hand, if the dispute is totally unique, the court may resolve the matter itself using general guidelines. This new decision then becomes the precedent to which all future cases are bound. Over the years, the precedents created by past decisions coalesce into a complicated set of rules that apply to a wide array of case; this collection of rules is known as “common law”. Of course, common law systems are much more complex in practice, nevertheless the principle of stare decisis as described above, is the foundation of all common law systems.
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Latest news
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At the carwash for a buck - Fiji Times
Google News - Belize, 17-February-2008
[full story]
At the carwash for a buck
Fiji Times, Fiji - 4 hours ago
Malolo works for her pocket money to USP and Belize, who wants to be an agricultural scientist, is named after a great aunt who was teaching in the ... -
Prof wants to provide best of care – from biggest to tiniest - Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette
Google News - Belize, 17-February-2008
[full story]
Prof wants to provide best of care – from biggest to tiniest
Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette, IL - 6 hours ago
From there, he joined the Peace Corps, where he first worked as a math and Spanish teacher in Belize, Central America. Because he remained so interested in ... -
First Chapter ‘The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw’ - New York Times
Google News - Belize, 17-February-2008
[full story]
Monsters and Critics.com
First Chapter ‘The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw’
New York Times, United States - 9 hours ago
... If you feel a need to escape the law, elude creditors, hide assets, or shed the skin of your humdrum life, you could do worse than run away to Belize. ...
THE LAST FLIGHT OF THE SCARLET MACAW New York Times
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