Interim relief: preserving disputed property

Section 44 of the Arbitration Act 1996 allows a party to apply to the court for interim relief in order to preserve property rights which are the subject of a dispute in arbitration. However, the court may grant an order only if the arbitrators are not themselves empowered to act.

In Barnwell Enterprises Ltd v ECP Africa FII Investments LLC [2013] EWHC 2517 (Comm) , Hamblen J had to decide how to deal with the situation in which the arbitrators had declined to intervene but it was not clear whether that was because they had no power to do so or because they had exercised a discretion not to do so.