For many years, the common belief was that international arbitration was not suitable for cases in which emergency relief could become necessary. The time required to impanel an arbitration tribunal and the logistics of organizing an arbitration hearing made it almost impossible to obtain an interim award in time to address an emergency situation. In such cases, a separate action for emergency relief in a court with jurisdiction over the dispute was the only viable option.
This option was patently counterintuitive, of course, as the desire to avoid litigation in a public forum is usually one of the main reasons to have disputes resolved through arbitration in the first place.
