Interim relief: the powers of the court

Section 44 of the Arbitration Act 1996 confers upon the court various powers of interim assistance in circumstances where the tribunal itself is unable to act. The key provision is section 44(3), which allows the court to preserve assets if the matter is one of urgency.

Court of Appeal authority has determined that assets can include contractual rights, but later cases have recognised that judicial intervention should be exercised with extreme caution if an interim award of the court would in practical terms be determinative of the dispute. That caution may be seen from the decision of Foxton J in JOL and Another v JPM [2023] EWHC 2486 (Comm); [2023] 2 Lloyd's Rep 556.