US Courts and the Anti-Arbitration Injunction

Abstract

This article explores an important area of US arbitration law: whether a US federal court has the authority, under the Federal Arbitration Act, to enjoin an international arbitration. Despite New York’s status as the preeminent US jurisdiction for lawsuits concerning the recognition and enforcement of international arbitration agreements and awards, there has been some lack of analytical consensus among the federal district courts of New York as to the basis for and propriety of granting an ‘anti-arbitration injunction’ in the international arbitration setting. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has yet to rule on the issue. This Article discusses US federal court jurisprudence on the subject of anti-arbitration injunctions and proposes a framework by which US federal courts might analyze whether they can and should issue anti-arbitration injunctions of international arbitrations.