48 U.S.C. § 1615
Section 1615 · Judicial divisions
Amended 4 times on record
Applied in 20 court decisions — leading case Rivera v. Government of Virgin Islands (1967)
Most recently applied in 866 F. Supp. 235 - Interested Underwriters at Lloyd's v. Haulover Marine, Inc. (October 1994)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The Virgin Islands consists of two judicial divisions; the Division of Saint Croix, comprising the island of Saint Croix and adjacent islands and cays, and the Division of Saint Thomas and Saint John, comprising the islands of Saint Thomas and Saint John and adjacent islands and cays.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1989—Pub. L. 101–219 struck out provision that court for the Division of Saint Croix be held in Christiansted and for the Division of Saint Thomas and Saint John at Charlotte Amalie.
1984—Pub. L. 98–454 amended section generally, inserting provisions setting forth places for the holding of court of each judicial division and striking out provisions relating to the applicability of procedural rules and prosecutions by information and indictment, which are now covered under section 1614 of this title, and repealed section 336 of Pub. L. 95–598 which had amended this section.
1978—Pub. L. 95–598 substituted “section 2075 of title 28 in cases under title 11” for “section 53 of title 11 in bankruptcy cases”.
Effective Date of 1984 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 98–454 effective on ninetieth day following Oct. 5, 1984, see section 1005 of Pub. L. 98–454, set out as a note under section 1424 of this title.
Effective Date of 1978 Amendment
Section 402(e) of Pub. L. 95–598, which provided a prospective effective date for the amendment of this section by section 336(b) of Pub. L. 95–598, was repealed by section 1001 of Pub. L. 98–454.