This Practice Note considers the availability of freezing injunctions in support of arbitration under the law of England and Wales and pursuant to the Arbitration Act 1996 (AA 1996) (England and English are used as convenient shorthands).

A freezing injunction or freezing order (formerly known as a ‘Mareva’ injunction) is an interim injunction that restrains a defendant from either removing their assets from the jurisdiction (ie England and Wales) or from dealing with them if they are not in the jurisdiction (known as a worldwide freezing order or WFO). The purpose of granting a freezing injunction is to ensure that the defendant's assets are preserved so that in the event the claimant obtains judgment against the defendant, assets are available for the claimant to recover damages and costs. Many types of assets can be frozen, including bank accounts.

Freezing injunctions are personal (they operate in personam); they attach to the defendant and are different from other forms of court order that have a proprietary effect—see Practice Notes: Proprietary freezing