Couple of things.
- Many federal courts allow preliminary injunction actions in aid of
arbitration agreements - that is, it becomes a federal court action to
get the the preliminary injunction while the arbitration is pending
and proceeding.
- The 8th Circuit (and maybe others) takes a different view where
the court has jurisdiction only if the contract essentially reserves
the right to get a prelim injunction from court despite an arbitration
clause that requires all other issues to be arbitrated.
- I know of no authority of an aribtrator to issue an injunction,
preliminary or otherwise -- but I haven't researched the issue.
Arbitrators are empowered to decide issues, but not enforce them, so
even under the theory underlying arbitration, the arbitrators would
not have authority to issue an injunction.
- I have not researched this issue and do not know what is going on
in the most recent version of the federal arbitration act -- though I
doubt it empowers private parties to issue injunctions.
I think one has a very good argument (contrary to the 8th Cir
position) that a court always has jurisdiction for the prelim
injunction -- provided the arbitration clause is being given effect
concurrently, i.e., the arbitration is under way.
I look forward to hearing from others who may have actually dealt with
this issue.
Steve
On 6/19/06, J. Noble <jfnbl[_at_]earthlink.com> wrote:
> So my question: Can arbitrators issue preliminary injunctions that
> federal courts will enforce?
>
--
Prof. Steven Jamar
Howard University School of Law
Received on Wed Jun 21 2006 - 06:05:45 GMT