Discovery

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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A New Frontier for Extraterritorial Disclosure Orders in England & Wales

In October 2022, an amendment to the Civil Procedure Rules in England established a new jurisdiction for limited extraterritorial disclosure orders (“information orders”). While the High Court of Justice (the “High Court”) had made steps (in ex parte applications) towards the granting of such orders in the last few years, the new rules and a…

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A Primer on Judicial Assistance Treaties

[This post is one in a series of primers on various topics in transnational litigation. More primers can be found on our topic pages, accessible by clicking Topics at the top of the page.] In transnational litigation it will often be necessary to do something within the territory of another state, such as serve process,…

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Throwback Thursday: Blackmun’s Prescient Dissent in Aérospatiale

In Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale v. U.S. District Court (1987), the Supreme Court held that U.S. courts need not treat the procedures set forth in the Hague Evidence Convention as the exclusive or even the primary means for managing discovery of evidence located abroad. Four justices dissented in part in a remarkably prescient opinion authored…

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Lower Court Grapples with Supreme Court Ruling on Section 1782 and Investor-State Arbitration

Back in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court resolved a circuit split on the applicability of Section 1782’s discovery tools for private commercial arbitration, and simultaneously addressed a related issue of Section 1782’s use in investor-state arbitration. The investor-state issue came to the Court in the case of AlixPartners LLP v. The Fund for Protection…

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Foreign Data Protection Laws: Greater Impact on U.S. Discovery than Foreign Blocking Statutes

Litigants are increasingly relying on foreign data protection laws – especially new laws in China and the European Union – to resist discovery requests from courts in the United States. Historically, U.S. courts do not limit discovery just because the production of the requested materials or information would violate foreign laws. So far, as Bill…

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A Typical 1782 Case

28 U.S.C. § 1782 allows a federal court to order discovery for use in a foreign or international tribunal. After the Supreme Court’s first § 1782 decision in 2004, Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., the number of § 1782 petitions increased dramatically, more than quadrupling between 2005 and 2017. In re Petition of…

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China’s New Data Security Law in U.S. Discovery Disputes

Discovery litigation regarding the impact of China’s Data Security Law (“DSL”), which took effect less than a year ago in September 2021, has steadily increased in U.S. courts, and it is likely to continue to increase over the coming months and years.  One driver of this litigation is the uncertainty created by the newness of…

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Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School
ingrid.wuerth@vanderbilt.eduEmail

William Dodge

UC Davis School of Law
wsdodge@ucdavis.eduEmail

Maggie Gardner

Cornell Law School
mgardner@cornell.eduEmail

John F. Coyle

University of North Carolina School of Law
jfcoyle@email.unc.eduEmail

Zachary D. Clopton

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
zclopton@law.northwestern.eduEmail

Noah Buyon

Duke University School of Law
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Will Moon

University of Maryland
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William K. McGoughran

Vanderbilt Law School
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Chimène Keitner

UC Davis School of Law
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Catherine Amirfar

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
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Justin R. Rassi

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
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Isabelle Glimcher

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
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Ben Köhler

Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
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Aaron D. Simowitz

Willamette University College of Law
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Timothy D. Lytton

Georgia State University College of Law
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