Arbitration

The exercise of the court’s discretion to grant an anti-arbitration injunction should generally only be done in exceptional circumstances, although it was nevertheless clear that the courts had jurisdiction to grant such injunctions. The need for caution in the grant of such injunctions was all the greater in relation to arbitrations outside the jurisdiction because such matters were generally best left to the relevant supervisory courts being the courts of the country of the seat of the arbitration.

In order to establish exceptional circumstances, it would usually be necessary, as a minimum, to establish that the applicant’s legal or equitable rights had been infringed or threatened by a continuation of the arbitration, or that its continuation would be vexatious, oppressive or unconscionable, those being the principles which governed the grant of injunctions to restrain proceedings in a foreign court. However, that might not be sufficient.