ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd.

A party lacking governmental involvement does not constitute a “foreign or international tribunal” under 28 U.S.C. §1782.

These two consolidated cases involve parties seeking discovery in the United States, to be used in arbitration proceedings abroad, by invoking 28 U.S.C. §1782. The adjudicating body in the first case, “DIS”, is a private dispute-resolution organization based in Berlin. The second case concerns an ad hoc arbitration panel settling a dispute between Lithuania and a Russian investor pursuant to a bilateral investment treaty. In the first case, Sixth Circuit precedent required the statute to be applied and the requested discovery to be produced. However, in the second case, Second Circuit precedent established that private arbitration panels do not constitute “foreign or international tribunals” under §1782. The Supreme Court interpreted §1782’s language to reach only bodies exercising governmental authority. Thus, the inquiry is whether the features of the adjudicatory body and other evidence establish the intent of the relevant nation(s) to grant the body in question with governmental authority. Because the parties invoking §1782 here are private adjudicatory bodies lacking governmental authority, they do not qualify as “foreign or international tribunals” under the statute. The District Court’s order denying the motion to quash in the first case and the Second Circuit’s judgment in the second case were reversed.