This article discusses the remedies available when a party commences court proceedings notwithstanding the existence of a valid arbitration agreement. It focuses in particular on the United States, the UK and Switzerland. Where proceedings are threatened or brought in a local court that is likely to assert jurisdiction over the matter and refuse to refer the parties to arbitration, one available remedy in common law jurisdictions is to request specific performance from a court in the arbitration forum or arbitrator by means of an anti-suit injunction. The authors also take a closer look at an arbitral tribunal’s authority to award damages for breach of an arbitration agreement, and discuss several recent cases of the Swiss Supreme Court allowing for this remedy.
This article appeared in the 2015 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: International Arbitration; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London.