Originally from AAA/ICDR Handbook on International Arbitration Practice

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Although arbitration offers many benefits to disputants—among them a quicker, less formal and less costly resolution than litigation, the ability to select the decision maker, and privacy—some people erroneously believe that one cannot obtain interim relief in arbitration. The ability to obtain such relief, for example a preliminary injunction, can be highly significant in certain kinds of disputes, especially those involving protection of intellectual property rights.

This perception is wrong because the major institutional arbitration providers do in fact allow for interim relief in arbitration. Although the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration previously had very limited provisions on interim relief, the Commission recently amended the Model Law to allow for stronger interim relief.1 The International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the international arm of the American Arbitration Association (AAA), recently incorporated into its rules a provision allowing parties to obtain emergency relief from an emergency arbitrator before the arbitrator is selected to hear the dispute.2 The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has a separate pre-arbitration procedure for a referee to hear urgent requests for relief, but this procedure has to be expressly stated in the parties' arbitration agreement.3

However, orders for interim relief and emergency orders are not self-enforcing. Thus, there is a concern over whether such orders will be enforced in a meaningful manner.