§ 9-9-38.Interim measures

Once a tribunal is constituted, it picks up much of the interim-relief power that a court held before the case began. Subsection (a) lets the tribunal grant interim measures at a party’s request, unless the parties agreed otherwise. Subsection (b) keeps that power flexible after the fact — the tribunal can modify, suspend, or end a measure it already granted, either because a party asks or, in exceptional circumstances with notice to the parties, on its own initiative.

Subsections (c) and (d) give the tribunal tools to manage the risk that comes with interim relief: it can require the party asking for the measure to post security, and it can demand prompt disclosure if the circumstances behind the measure change in some material way. Subsection (e) supplies the backstop — if a measure turns out to have been unjustified from the start, the party that obtained it may end up owing the other side for damage caused by enforcing the measure, or for damage caused by the other side having to post security just to avoid that enforcement, and that claim can be raised inside the pending arbitration rather than in a separate lawsuit.

Subsections (f) through (h) move from the tribunal to the courts. An interim measure the tribunal issues is treated as binding and, unless the tribunal itself has provided otherwise, a competent court will enforce it on application no matter which country issued it, subject to the refusal grounds in Code Section 9-9-39. Anyone seeking or holding that enforcement has to keep the court promptly informed if the measure gets modified, suspended, or terminated. And a Georgia court asked to enforce the measure can require its own security, if the tribunal has not already addressed that question or if third-party rights need protecting.