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Anti-Suit Injunctions in International Arbitration
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Att. Ezgi Babur
Anti-suit injunctions are national court orders used especially in
common law countries, in order to protect the jurisdiction of the arbi-
tral tribunal, or to prevent the tribunal from assuming jurisdiction.
Anti-suit injunctions may order a party not to pursue court proceedings
initiated in breach of a dispute resolution clause, or an arbitration
agreement. Anti-suit injunctions are controversial, since they are an
indirect interference with the judicial process of a foreign sovereign
state, which is analyzed in this article.
In General
The anti-suit injunction is a court order rendered against a private
party with the intention of either to prevent that party from commenc-
ing an action in another forum, or forcing that party to discontinue such
an action if already started
1
.
Anti-suit injunctions may be granted where it is absolutely clear
that the arbitration proceedings have been wrongly initiated. It should
be emphasized that these injunctions can be initiated against the par-
ties alone, or may only be directed against the arbitrators if the court
granting the injunction has personal jurisdiction over them
2
.
Anti-suit injunctions may be divided into two categories, as
injunctions restraining arbitration proceedings, and injunctions
restraining parallel court proceedings. The latter is more common in
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NEWSLETTER 2015
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Article of February 2015
1
Neil A Dowers,
The Anti-Suit Injunction and the EU: Legal Tradition and Europeanisation in
International Private Law, Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law (2)4: 960-
973 (213), p. 960 (“Dowers”).
2
Julian D M Lew, Loukas A Mistelis, Stefan M Kröll
, Comparative International Commercial
Arbitration, Kluwer Law International, 2003, p. 363 (“Lew-Mistelis-Kröll”).