User:Visviva/USVI law

The law of the United States Virgin Islands consists of statutory and regulatory law as well as case law. The Virgin Islands Code (VIC) forms the general statutory law. Unlike many other parts of the United States, there is no territorial constitutional law (because the territory has no constitution) and there is also no local law (because the territory has no local governments).

The U.S. Virgin Islands have a Superior Court and Supreme Court. The District Court of the Virgin Islands is responsible for cases brought under federal law, and the U.S. Attorney for the District of the Virgin Islands can bring federal criminal cases there. The Superior Court is responsible for hearing cases under U.S. Virgin Islands law at the trial level. The Supreme Court is responsible for appeals from the Superior Court for all appeals filed on or after January 29, 2007, when the Supreme Court formally assumed appellate jurisdiction. (Appeals filed prior to that date were heard by the Appellate Division of the federal district court.)

Appeals from the federal district court are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. District Court judges are appointed by the U.S. president, while Superior Court and Supreme Court judges are appointed by the governor.

As of 2019, the USVI courts apply both American common law and the 2019 US Virgin Islands Code as passed by the territorial legislature. Because the USVI is not a state and Congress has not determined otherwise, the federal district court is an Article IV tribunal, subject to the authority of the United States secretary of the interior and without lifetime appointment for judges. Elements of Danish law have all been repealed, except for two 1914 laws having to do with customs and ship duties for St. Thomas and St. John.

History
Prior to the establishment of the Virgin Islands Superior Court, all cases were heard in federal court, in the United States District Court for the District of the Virgin Islands.

Case law
The USVI legal system is based on common law, which is interpreted by case law through the decisions of the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands. In 1957, the territorial legislature adopted the Restatements of the Law by statute. In 2011, however, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court held, in Banks v. International Renting and Leasing, that the legislature's 2007 creation of the Supreme Court had superseded that statute, so that the Restatements were no longer authoritative in the Virgin Islands. Since then, when evaluating any common law rule that has not yet been adopted in the territory, the courts follow the three-factor Banks analysis: "(1) whether any Virgin Islands courts have previously adopted a particular rule; (2) the position taken by a majority of courts from other jurisdictions; and (3) most importantly, which approach represents the soundest rule for the Virgin Islands." In the first five years after Banks, the Virgin Islands courts conducted the Banks analysis in 120 cases. In six of these, the Restatement rule was rejected.