Il ricorso alle anti-suit injunctions per risolvere i conflitti internazionali di giurisdizione ed il ruolo dell’international comity

The present article analyses the anti-suit injunction, an eq- uitable tool used by common law courts in order to restrain a party from commencing or continuing a national judgement or an arbitral proceeding abroad, the issuance of which is seen by many foreign courts as an offence and an attempt to their sovereignty. After having described the develop- ment and the main features of the anti-suit injunction, this article focuses on the possibility and the opportunity for English courts to issue anti-suit injunctions in jurisdictional conflicts within the European boarders and in the international context. With particular regard to intra-EU conflicts of jurisdiction, this article mainly focuses on the effects of the new Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012, whose Recital 12, according to certain scholars, might be interpreted as rec- ognising again the power of English courts to issue anti-suit injunctions af- ter the Court of Justice of the European Union forbade the use of such or- ders under Regulation (EC) No 44/2001. This article argues that, in a context of global economy, anti-suit in- junctions should be used only in exceptional circumstances, in particular when their issuance is in accordance with the principle of international co- mity, which is proposed as the criterion that should usually guide common law judges when considering issuing an anti-suit injunction. In light of the above, the article eventually tries to make a practical as- sessment of the situations in which the use of anti-suit injunctions is per- mitted by the principle of international comity.