The CAA pulled the plug on AOC's for IoM based operations several years back
Can you give the detail behind this? What were the reasons and what exactly was "pulled"?
The FCL and certification side is easy enough: you accept the FAA requirements; after all they work for some 90% of the known universe.
Of course you accept the JAA stuff too.
It's also possible that the IOM register will be useful to IOM residents only, through taxation advantages. This would not suprise me; the various islands already have a much simplified personal and corporate taxation system already and don't have the UK-mainland Gestapo-style Inland Revenue which tries to collect money every which way it can under 50 different headings.
In any event, I am quite sure that nobody close to the IOM setup is going to be posting any details here. This stuff is highly political.
Personally, I would be happy if some "proper country" like Poland did this (accepted FAA FCL, FAA cert, had no foreign ownership or parking restrictions). They are or will be a full JAA member state and an ICAO signatory. They would make many millions. The Greeks already do this for Greek nationals (accept FAA IR for worldwide IFR privileges in an SX-reg plane) so this would be only a small step.