Interlocutory Injunctions to Prevent Commencement of Legal Action: Anti-suit Injunctions
| Author | Jeffrey Berryman |
| Profession | Professor of Law. Faculty of Law University of Windsor |
| Pages | 95-103 |
CHAPTER
6
INTERLOCUTORY
INJUNCTIONS
TO
PREVENT
COMMENCE-
MENT
OF
LEGAL
ACTION:
ANTI-SUIT
INJUNCTIONS
A
INTRODUCTION
At
the
outer extreme
of
judicial innovation
in the
field
of
interlocutory
injunctions
has
been
the
anti-suit injunction. This injunction
is
designed
to
prevent
a
plaintiff
from
bringing
a
suit
in
another country.
It
is the
product
of
globalized litigation
and the
fact
that
in
many dis-
putes there exists
a
potential
for
liability against numerous defendants
in a
number
of
jurisdictions.
The
usual legal mechanism
for
resolving
these jurisdictional problems lies
in the
area
of
conflicts
of
laws
and the
doctrine
of
forum
non
conveniens.
However, many
jurisdictions,
notably
many European civil
law
countries
and
Texas,
do not
follow
similar
conflict
rules.
Plaintiffs
have been drawn
to
these jurisdictions
in the
belief,
often
justified,
that they will receive some procedural advantage
(i.e., access
to
jury trial,
different
forms
of
proof such
as
strict liability
rather than negligence, advantage
of a
contingent
fee
structure)
— or
that because
of the
greater availability
of
punitive damages
the
com-
pensation granted will
be
significantly higher, than
if
they
had
contin-
ued to
proceed
in a
more natural
forum.
In
response, defendants have
sought
an
anti-suit
injunction,
ordering
the
plaintiff
to
discontinue
its
suit
in the
foreign
jurisdiction.
For a
court, adjudicating
on
such
an
issue
is
extremely problematic.
At one
level
it
appears
as if the
domestic
court
is
being asked
to
pass judgment upon
the
capacity
of a
foreign
court
to
administer justice. This issue transcends
the
litigants
and
raises questions concerning comity between national courts.
95
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