Originally from: Anti-Suit Injunctions in International Arbitration

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Anti-suit injunctions are not to be encouraged in any type of litigation. In the context of international arbitration, they constitute even more of a nuisance. This conclusion, which may seem somewhat abrupt, applies, in my opinion, regardless of the purpose of the anti-suit injunction and regardless of the authority that issues such injunction.

Anti-suit injunctions are sometimes issued by arbitrators, but it is more frequent that they be issued by state courts. They are sometimes sought in support of the arbitration agreement. More frequently, they are issued in an attempt to disrupt an arbitral proceeding or to prevent it from being pursued. They may even be directed at another anti-suit injunction issued by a judge in a different jurisdiction. In all these situations, anti-suit injunctions are, in my view, illegitimate. They inevitably aggravate the dispute and scatter the litigation among various fora; almost by definition, they infringe upon the jurisdiction of another court in an extraterritorial manner or that of an arbitral tribunal; when they are directed against the jurisdiction of an arbitral tribunal, they run contrary to several fundamental rules of international arbitration.