ABSTRACT
The anti-enforcement injunction – a court order enjoining a party from taking steps to enforce a foreign judgment or an arbitral award – is an extraordinary form of equitable relief. It undermines the strong and essentially universal policy in favor of res judicata; in addition, it interferes significantly with foreign legal systems, particularly when it seeks to block enforcement efforts worldwide, as in the notorious Chevron Ecuador litigation. Nonetheless, while rare, it is recognized both in the United States and in other legal systems, and in some cases can serve important goals. In this essay, we situate anti-enforcement injunctions within the framework of procedural law, considering their interaction with the rules on recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and the rules governing the broader category of anti-suit injunctions. We then examine the criteria that inform their availability, concluding that such injunctions, while they must remain an exceptional remedy, are an important tool for courts to use in addressing various enforcement-stage conflicts that can arise in transnational litigation.
Buxbaum, Hannah L and Michaels, Ralf, Anti-Enforcement Injunctions (November 24, 2023), New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, volume 56, 101-118.
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