ABSTRACT
The law on injunctions is central to English equity. Injunctions are an equitable remedy which are available in a very wide range of circumstances spanning across English civil law from family law to commercial law. Such is their ubiquity in our legal system that their roots in equity are often overlooked. The central proposition which it is important to absorb is that judges have an inherent jurisdiction to award injunctions in circumstances in which they consider it necessary to avoid injustice. As Lord Nicholls made plain in the House of Lords in Mercedes Benz AG v Leiduck : 1
The court may grant an injunction against a party properly before it where this is required to avoid injustice . . . The court habitually grants injunctions in respect of certain types of conduct. But that does not mean that the situations in which injunctions may be granted are now set in stone for all time . . . The exercise of the jurisdiction must be principled, but the criterion is injustice.
