Law360, New York (July 29, 2015, 1:58 PM EDT) -- For lawyers in the U.S. and elsewhere working in finance, insurance and other areas where business is conducted through offshore financial centers, the English approach to interpreting commercial contracts matters. This type of business relies extensively on written agreements governed by local laws, which are in turn heavily influenced by the English approach to contractual interpretation. English law resorts to "commercial common sense" to interpret contracts. There is an evolving debate over how far commercial common sense should take the court. A recent U.K. Supreme Court decision, Arnold v. Britton & Ors,[1] brings welcome clarity to this debate. This decision will almost certainly be followed in offshore financial centers that use English common law (e.g. the Cayman Islands, BVI and Bermuda) and therefore has significant implications for future interpretation of the sort of written commercial agreements used offshore....
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