Integrity protection

Foreign defendants who try to re-litigate issues abroad when judgment has already been awarded against them by the English courts can be stopped from doing so, the Court of Appeal has ruled. In Masri v Consolidated Contractors International Co SAL and Another (No 3), the court ruled that the English court has an ancillary power to grant an injunction in such a situation to protect its jurisdiction and its processes, including the integrity of its judgments. The power was a discretionary one to be exercised in accordance with the requirements of international comity, he said. The defendants’ submission to the English jurisdiction in those proceedings was a sufficient basis for the imposition of the anti-suit injunction, he said; no separate basis of jurisdiction was required.