The development of European company law is a hot topic for various reasons. With regard to EU primary law, the ECJ’s Centros decision and its progeny have unleashed an increasingly lively horizontal competition among the EU Member States for the incorporation of companies. As far as initiatives in EU legislation are concerned, the Action Plan presented in May 2003 has led to several new projects concerning the harmonisation of the Member States’ laws on corporate governance issues.

This article provides a survey of German and English case law which illustrates some of the problems that State court judges, parties and arbitrators may encounter when national courts are asked to assist in arbitral proceedings that take place in another country. Although German and English arbitration laws define in which cases their State courts may support foreign arbitrations, the application of these laws may nevertheless prove difficult. The supportive measures requested from the German and English courts concerned the appointment of an arbitrator, the granting of interim relief and assistance in the taking of evidence. While the English courts rendered well-reasoned decisions, the two German courts handed down more controversial judgments.