FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Kyum Lee, Florian Dessault, Hannah Cobbett and Claire Gonzalez, BDGS Associés
damage or put an end to a manifestly unlawful disturbance (Articles 835 and 873 of the French Civil Procedure Code); and (c) in certain cases, an interim payment or the performance of an obligation (Articles 835 and 873 of the French Civil Procedure Code). Interim measures ordered by French courts are nor - mally immediately enforceable, and an appeal does not automatically stay enforcement. These interim measures are available if French courts have territo - rial jurisdiction, regardless of whether the arbitration agreement provides for a seat in France or abroad. Once constituted, the arbitral tribunal has in princi - ple exclusive jurisdiction to order interim measures (Article 1468 of the French Civil Procedure Code; see 6.1 Types of Relief ). However, the parties may seek assistance from the courts in relation to interim meas - ures that cannot be ordered by the arbitral tribunal, or the enforcement of interim measures ordered by the arbitral tribunal. In this respect, Decree No 2026-741 of 6 August 2026 amends Article 1468 to allow any party to apply to the supporting judge to confer provisional enforceability on a provisional or conservatory measure ordered by the arbitral tribunal. The supporting judge grants the application unless enforcement would seriously preju - dice the rights of a party or the measure would be contrary to public policy (international public policy in international arbitration – see new Article 1506 in fine ). Even when the arbitral tribunal is constituted, French courts have exclusive jurisdiction to order provisional seizures and judicial mortgages and, upon authori - sation of the arbitral tribunal, to order a third party to produce identified documents (Article 1469 of the French Civil Procedure Code). It should be noted that the new Article 1469 will trans - fer jurisdiction over the production of documents held by third parties from the President of the Judicial Court to the supporting judge. The new Article 1505 (5) will also confer jurisdiction on the supporting judge in international arbitration where the relevant docu - ment is held by a third party residing in France.
French courts’ assistance is also needed when a party does not comply with an interim measure ordered by the arbitral tribunal. Emergency arbitration provisions contained in the rules of arbitral institutions are not incompatible with French law. For example, under the ICC Arbitration Rules (2026) (Article 31 of the Rules and Appendix IV): • an emergency arbitrator may be appointed before the constitution of the arbitral tribunal; • the emergency arbitrator’s decision is binding on the parties but is not enforceable as an arbitral award; and • an application for emergency arbitrator proceed - ings does not prevent a party from applying to national courts for any other urgent or conservatory measures. Under the revised ICC Arbitration Rules (2026), parties may apply for ex parte measures, and the emergency arbitrator proceedings may be initiated against: • parties that are signatories to the arbitration agree - ment upon which the application is based; • their successors; or • any party for which the President is satisfied, based on information in the application, that an arbitration agreement binding such party may exist. 6.3 Security for Costs French law does not contain any specific provisions on security for costs. However, security for costs may be ordered by arbitral tribunals or the French courts under the conditions set out previously for interim measures (see 6.1 Types of Relief and 6.2 Role of Courts ).
7. Procedure 7.1 Governing Rules
Pursuant to Article 1509 of the French Civil Procedure Code, the parties are free to agree on the procedural rules applicable to their international arbitration pro - ceedings. This is typically done by the parties incor - porating a set of institutional rules that govern the arbitration procedure into the arbitration agreement.
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