This chapter lays down the foundations for the central argument of the book, that the principle of equipage equality is the primary function of freezing injunctions. This is in contrast to the prevailing, traditional view that freezing injunctions are simply a weapon against unscrupulous defendants and concerned with the enforcement of judgments. In fact, the rules on freezing injunctions, by balancing the rights of the parties, also protect defendants from unnecessary interference with their assets. The principle of equipage equality has important implications for the scope of freezing injunctions. This chapter deals with the implications on their substantive scope. These include issues relating to the basic requirements such as real risk of dissipation of the assets. It is argued that some aspects of the current substantive preconditions of freezing injunctions are inconsistent with equipage equality and that the overall balance created by the substantive preconditions is excessively favourable to the claimant

This chapter recognises the practical reality that in high-value, cross-border commercial litigation it is frequent to see claimants making applications for more than one type of interim relief. In addition to a freezing injunction and an ancillary disclosure order, the complexity of the facts and the defendant’s conduct may lead the claimant to apply for an anti-suit injunction, an anti-enforcement injunction, a Norwich Pharmacal order and/or a receivership order. It is suggested that this potential for a ‘kitchen sink’ approach to interim relief raises concerns about the financial pressure on defendants, the pressure on the English courts, and the consistency of the courts’ reasoning relating to the extraterritorial scope of interim relief. The significance of taking into account the pressure on the courts cannot be underestimated as the potential for delays resulting from interim relief may undermine access to justice. The chapter examines the relationship between freezing injunctions and other types of interim relief.