“Ideally, the handling of arbitral disputes should resemble a relay race. In the initial stages, before the arbitrators are seized of the dispute, the baton is in the grasp of the court… when the arbitrators take charge they take over the baton and retain it until they have made an award.”
This seamless transition from litigation to arbitration and back again (taken from ‘Conservatory & Provisional Measures in International Arbitration’) represents a utopian view of how the relationship between litigation and arbitration should operate. However, as the author, Lord Mustill, went on to note, the position is not so clear-cut in real life.
