Dubai Court of Appeal Annuls Anti-Suit Injunction Issued in ICC Arbitration Proceedings

Introduction

In a recent decision, the Dubai Court of Appeal (Court of Appeal) in Case No. 8 of 2025 (issued on 28 April 2025) annulled an interim award, issued by an arbitral tribunal in an ongoing International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration, which prohibited the respondent from filing proceedings before any court. The Court of Appeal held that arbitration proceedings cannot suspend or override a party’s constitutional right to access the courts unless expressly permitted by law, and the anti-suit injunction issued by the arbitral tribunal did not qualify as a valid interim or precautionary measure under the laws of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Background

The arbitral tribunal in an ICC arbitration, seated in Dubai, issued an interim award preventing the respondent in the arbitration from filing any claim before any court with respect to the matters in dispute in the arbitration. The respondent applied to the Court of Appeal to annul the award on the basis that it prevented the respondent from exercising its constitutional right to file court proceedings and that the anti-suit injunction did not constitute a valid interim or precautionary measure under Article 21 of Federal Law No. 6 of 2018 (the UAE Arbitration Law). 

Although the Court of Appeal recognised the purpose of anti-suit injunctions (noting that they can be used to guarantee the effectiveness of an arbitration agreement and avoid the risk of conflicting judgments), the Court of Appeal held that the right to litigation is a constitutional right prescribed by law and that a court or arbitral tribunal cannot issue an anti-suit injunction unless the law expressly permits. As the arbitration was seated in Dubai, the applicable law was the UAE Arbitration Law. The Court of Appeal held that the UAE Arbitration Law does not permit an arbitral tribunal to issue an anti-suit injunction, and therefore, the tribunal’s interim award lacked legal basis and had to be annulled. 

Analysis 

Article 21 of the UAE Arbitration Law entitles an arbitral tribunal to issue interim or preventive measures as it may deem necessary. One of the permitted orders, contained in Article 21(1)(e) of the UAE Arbitration Law, is an order directing or refraining a party from taking action that is likely to cause current or imminent harm or prejudice to the arbitral process itself. The Court of Appeal’s decision in Case No. 8 of 2025 indicates that the onshore UAE courts do not consider that an anti-suit injunction falls within the scope of this provision. 

It remains to be seen whether the approach taken by the Court of Appeal in this case will be maintained by the onshore UAE courts. If followed, parties in arbitration proceedings seated in Dubai (or elsewhere in the UAE) face the prospect of being required to incur the time and cost of engaging a local advocate to file a jurisdictional objection against parallel proceedings in the onshore UAE courts on the basis of the parties’ arbitration agreement. 

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