States and state entities are increasingly involved in commercial arbitration. Despite the fairly settled principles concerning state immunity from adjudication and state immunity from execution, the principles concerning state immunity from interim relief by domestic courts in aid of arbitration remains poorly defined. Adopting Professor McLachlan’s approach toward foreign relations law, this article attempts to sketch the principles which may govern state immunity in the context of interim relief against states in aid of arbitration by applying the rules of state immunity in an allocative manner. It is suggested that it is at least arguable that a state’s consent to arbitration in many cases could amount to a waiver of state immunity from court-aided interim relief by the court located at the seat of the arbitration. This conclusion is likely to strike a balance between over-deference to states by virtue of their sovereign status, and a liberal erosion of the immunity rules in favour of private counterparties.
Journal of International Arbitration