Interim Measures In International Commercial Arbitration

In the process of international commercial arbitration, the court and the arbitral tribunal can generally order a variety of interim measures of protection, including measures designed to preserve the status quo of the dispute, measures designed to facilitate the enforcement of the arbitral award, and measures designed to facilitate the production of evidence. There are provisions on interim measures in "European Convention on International Commercial Arbitration(1961)", "ICSID Washington Convention of 1965", "UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration(2006)" (hereinafter referred to as "Model Law of 2006") and the rules of the most popular arbitral institutions. Many domestic law systems have similar rules, as well. Particularly, articles of the "Model Law of 2006" on the power of arbitral tribunal to grant preliminary orders, and recognition and enforcement of interim measures which says that an interim measure issued by an arbitral tribunal shall be recognized as binding and, unless otherwise provided by the arbitral tribunal, enforced upon application to the competent court set a good example for national legal system. In China, with regard to interim measures of protection, the Arbitration Law 1994 just copied the traditional mechanism designed for civil litigation, with evidence preservation and property preservation as the main available measures, which has not met the needs of international arbitral practice.The author studies the international documents mentioned above, especially the articles on interim measures of"Model Law (2006)", and pays special attention on the creative interim measures of ICSID, also the necessity of granting pre-arbitration interim measures. This article discusses the possibility of the recognition and enforcement of interim measures subject to the New York Convention of 1958, as well. On the analysis of the reference materials, focusing on the arbitral legislations and practice in China, the author also makes several suggestions to improve the rules with the wish to promote the development of international commercial arbitration.