UK: England and Wales: the extraterritorial effect of section 236 of the Insolvency Act 1986

Judgment was delivered earlier this week by Adam Johnson QC (sitting as a Judge of the High Court) in Wallace v Wallace [2019] EWHC 2503 (Ch). At issue was whether an order under section 236 ("Inquiry into company’s dealings, etc.") of the Insolvency Act 1986 could be made against an individual resident abroad. To put this another way: does section 236 have extraterritorial effect? The existing authorities presented, the Judge noted, "a somewhat fragmented picture" (para. [46]) but he concluded, with respect to the power to order the production of "any books, papers or other records" under section 236(3), that an order could be made against an individual resident outside of the United Kingdom.