The Overlapping Powers Of The Courts And Arbitral Tribunal To Grant Interim Relief

Introduction

Under section 11(1) of the Arbitration Act 2005 ("AA 2005"), the Malaysian courts are conferred with the power and jurisdiction to grant interim relief before or even during arbitral proceedings. Since the process to formally constitute an arbitral tribunal may take time, any party who wishes to obtain urgent interim relief may seek the same from the court by relying on section 11(1) of the AA 2005.

Once an arbitral tribunal is constituted, the arbitral tribunal then has the power to grant certain types of interim measures pursuant to section 19(1) of the AA 2005¹, which includes the phrase "unless otherwise agreed by the parties". This essentially means that parties may agree to exclude the arbitral tribunal's jurisdiction to grant interim measures and instead pursue the same from the courts. However, in the absence of such an agreement and to the extent where the interim measures under both section 11 and section 19 may overlap, there exists a