“The court order that commands someone to stop doing something — or to do something — takes its name from the Latin injungere: to join upon, to impose. To injunct is to join a command onto a person's actions.”
Latin injungere combines in- (upon) and jungere (to join, to yoke). To injoin, to enjoin, to injunct — all from the same joining root — means to impose a command, to yoke a requirement onto someone. The English common law injunction emerged in the Court of Chancery in the 15th century as the equity court's most powerful remedy: an order from the Chancellor (sitting as the King's conscience) commanding a party to act or refrain from acting.
The Chancellor's power to issue injunctions was originally extraordinary — equity courts could override the common law if following the law would produce unconscionable results. The injunction was the equity tool par excellence: not a judgment about past acts but a command about future behavior. You have not yet wronged me, but you are about to, and I ask the court to command you to stop.
Injunctions are classified by their timing and scope: a temporary restraining order (TRO) is issued without the other party's presence; a preliminary injunction follows a hearing with both sides present; a permanent injunction is issued after full trial. All three direct behavior rather than compensate for past harm. The injunction is prospective — it faces forward.
The history of American labor law was substantially written in injunctions: courts issued injunctions against strikes and boycotts throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, treating labor actions as injuries to property rights. The Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 restricted federal courts' injunction power in labor disputes. The yoke metaphor was apt — courts used injunctions to yoke workers' collective action.
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The injunction is the law's attempt to manage the future rather than compensate for the past. It says: not only did you do something wrong, but you are going to keep doing it, and the court commands you to stop. The yoke metaphor is honest — the court's order is laid on the person like a physical restraint.
The difficulty is enforcement: an injunction is only as powerful as the court's ability to hold someone in contempt. The same court that issues the injunction holds the key to the contempt citation. The yoke can be broken; the court must be willing to respond.
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