Supreme Court Restricts Foreign Arbitration Discovery - Private Foreign Arbitration Panels Excluded
ZF Automotive Us, Inc., et al. v. Luxshare, Ltd.
No. 21–401. Argued March 23, 2022—Decided June 13, 2022
A unanimous Supreme Court (Barrett, J. writing for the Court) today restricted discovery in foreign arbitration disputes to governmental or intergovernmental agencies. 28 U. S. C. §1782(a) authorizes a federal district court to order production of evidence “in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal.” The issue in the consolidated cases was whether the arbitration proceedings in the two unrelated cases constituted a “foreign tribunal” under the statute. In one case the district court ordered discovery with the Sixth Circuit upholding the trial court; in the other case the district court denied the discovery requested and was upheld by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. “[A] ‘foreign tribunal’ is one that exercises governmental authority conferred by a single nation, and an ‘international tribunal’ is one that exercises governmental authority conferred by two or more nations. Private adjudicatory bodies do not fall within §1782.”
A copy of the opinion is attached.
