Anti-suit injunctions and the New York Convention | Practical Law

Anti-suit injunctions and the New York Convention | Practical Law

An update on Shashoua and another v Sharma [2010] EWCA Civ 15, in which permission to appeal was granted.

Anti-suit injunctions and the New York Convention

Practical Law UK Legal Update Case Report 1-501-3228 (Approx. 3 pages)

Anti-suit injunctions and the New York Convention

by PLC Arbitration
Law stated as at 26 Jan 2010 • England, Northern Ireland, Wales
An update on Shashoua and another v Sharma [2010] EWCA Civ 15, in which permission to appeal was granted.
As we have previously reported, in Shashoua and another v Sharma [2009] EWHC 957 (Comm), Cooke J upheld an anti-suit injunction the effect of which was to restrain proceedings in the Indian courts to challenge certain arbitration awards (see Legal update, West Tankers has no application in English/ Indian proceedings). The injunction extended to any attempts to challenge the recognition or enforcement of the awards under Article 5 of the New York Convention. In relation to such challenges, liberty to apply to the English court to vary the injunction was granted.
In Shashoua and another v Sharma [2010] EWCA Civ 15, the Court of Appeal has now granted limited permission to appeal, in relation to the issues of:
  • Whether it is permissible for an anti-suit injunction to restrain a defendant from defending the enforcement or recognition of an award under the provisions of Article 5 of the New York Convention.
  • Whether it is permissible to render the ability to raise such a defence conditional on a successful application to the English court.
In granting permission, Rix LJ noted that the issue was not determined by the leading case of C v D [2007] EWCA Civ 1282, because in that case it was assumed that the award in question was not a New York Convention award (see Legal update, Law of seat determines scope of permissible challenges to arbitral award). We will continue to report on future developments.