New Zealand arbitration: stays of proceedings, anti-suit injunctions, and challenges to tribunal jurisdiction—grounds and High Court procedure

Published by a LexisNexis Arbitration expert

Practice notes

A central element in giving effect to an agreement to arbitrate is safeguarding the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal seized of the dispute. In New Zealand, a range of remedies exists to protect the tribunal’s exclusive authority from both domestic and overseas court proceedings. In addition, parties have avenues to address situations where the arbitral tribunal has been improperly seized of jurisdiction...

Accordingly, this Practice Note considers the following issues:

applying for a stay of court proceedings in favour of arbitration
applying for injunctions in the New Zealand courts to restrain foreign court proceedings brought in breach of an arbitration agreement (the ‘anti-suit’ injunction)
challenging the jurisdiction of an arbitral tribunal in New Zealand

Both international and domestic arbitration in New Zealand is governed by the Arbitration Act 1996. The Arbitration Act largely implements the UNCITRAL Model Law as Schedule 1 to the Act. Additional optional procedural rules are supplied under Schedule 2, which apply to all domestic arbitrations unless the parties agree otherwise (and only apply to an international arbitration if the parties so agree)...

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Polly Pope

Bankside Chambers

Polly is a leading New Zealand commercial barrister. Her practice spans construction, insolvency, class action, property, company and commercial disputes. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) and of the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand, a recipient of the Sir Ronald Davison Award for excellence in arbitral award writing, and a member of AMINZ's Arbitration Appeals Tribunal....

Nadia Murray-Ragg

Bankside Chambers

Nadia is an employed barrister at Bankside Chambers based in Auckland, New Zealand. Her practice focuses on commercial litigation, arbitration (domestic and international) and public law claims. In New Zealand, she has appeared in the Supreme Court, High Court, District Court and arbitral tribunals. She has represented clients in the Building Disputes Tribunal and at mediation.Before joining Bankside Chambers, Nadia worked in legal research as a Judge’s Clerk in the High Court at Wellington for two years. While at university, Nadia worked for the law school as a researcher and as an editor of the Victoria University of Wellington Law Review, New Zealand Women’s Law Journal, and Public Interest Law Journal of New Zealand. Nadia has published in the New Zealand Women’s Law Journal and is an Associate Editor there. She has presented on evidence admissibility laws at the Law and Gender: Beyond...

Amelia Cina

Russell McVeagh

Amelia is a Senior Solicitor in the Russell McVeagh litigation team and has acted for clients on a broad range of public and commercial disputes. Amelia has also taught courses on legal writing and mooting as a Teaching Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington. Prior to commencing private practice Amelia clerked for Justice Cooke at the New Zealand High Court and worked as a research assistant to Professor Campbell McLachlan KC providing research support for his book on systematic integration in international law and Dicey Morris and Collins on the Conflict of Laws....

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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