Discovery

The United States is an outlier both in the amount of discovery permitted during litigation in its courts and in its willingness to assist evidence gathering on behalf of foreign and international courts. The readiness of U.S. courts to compel production by foreign parties of evidence located in foreign countries has at times spurred protests by those countries, particularly in the context of antitrust litigation. When that extraterritorial evidence is in the hands of a nonparty, U.S. courts must seek assistance from the country where the evidence is located because a court can only compel persons subject to its authority to testify or produce documents. To request such assistance, U.S. courts may invoke the Hague Evidence Convention or rely on letters rogatory, both of which are imperfect mechanisms. Meanwhile, Congress has broadly authorized the federal courts to assist with discovery on behalf of foreign or international tribunals through 28 U.S.C. § 1782.

Recent Posts

PGA v. LIV: Golf, Discovery, Immunity and PIF — The Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund

Just as the competition between PGA Tour and LIV Golf has divided the golf world, so too may the immunity issues raised by the litigation divide legal experts. Sadly, this post is pretty weak in terms of golf puns – par for the course in legal writing about immunities – but it does address interesting…

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Another Court Rejects Chinese Data Privacy Law as a Bar to U.S. Discovery

A second U.S. decision has held that China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) did not bar a U.S. discovery request because of an exception in the law for statutory obligations. As previously reported on TLB, a federal court in California held last year that the PIPL’s exception for transfers “necessary to fulfill statutory duties and responsibilities or…

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A Primer on Transnational Discovery

Discovery is a formal process in which each party gathers information relevant to its case. Transnational discovery may be necessary to obtain information located abroad for use in U.S. courts or to obtain information located in the United States for use in foreign courts. As a general matter, courts may order parties subject to their…

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