International Arbitration Is Back at Supreme Court with Today’s Cert Grant on Two Section 1782 Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court this afternoon granted certiorari on two Section 1782 cases, ZF Automotive US Inc. v. Luxshare Ltd., No. 21-401, and AlixPartners LLP v. The Fund for Protection of Investor Rights in Foreign States, No. 21-518.
By accepting these cases, the nation’s top Court has again agreed to decide whether 28 U.S.C. § 1782 can be invoked by parties in international arbitrations to obtain U.S.-style discovery to obtain evidence for use in such proceedings.
It is the second time this year that the Court has taken on the issue. Today’s cert grants follow the voluntary dismissal in September just six days before the scheduled argument for Servotronics, Inc. v. Rolls-Royce, PLC, No. 20-794, a case that the court had agreed to hear on the same issue last March. For details on the dismissal, see Bryanna Rainwater, “Case Dismissed: Supreme Court Lightens Its Arbitration Load as Servotronics Is Removed from 2021-22 Docket,” CPR Speaks (Sept. 8) (available here).
As it had done in Servotronics, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, which publishes CPR Speaks, filed an amicus brief in support of the AlixPartners certiorari petition. [Editor’s note: John Pinney, author of this CPR Speaks blog post, also is counsel of record on both amicus briefs on CPR’s behalf. See the credit line for links below.]
In its order granting cert on the two cases, the Court formally granted CPR’s leave to file an amicus brief in AlixPartners. The Court consolidated the two cases and allotted an hour for an oral argument. The order is available here. The case has not yet been scheduled; schedules for winter and spring 2022 argument dates in the current 2021-2022 term have yet to be released, and the case could be added before the Court’s year ends in June.
The specific issue before the Supreme Court is whether the critical phrase in § 1782, “foreign or international tribunal,” includes international arbitral tribunals. As readers who have been following the cases addressing § 1782 over the past two years know—see links to key CPR Speaks blog posts below–there is a circuit split regarding the applicability of § 1782 for private international arbitrations. The Second, Fifth and Seventh U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals have held that an international arbitral tribunal is not a “tribunal” within the meaning of the statute, while the Fourth and Sixth Circuits have decided it is.
There was widespread disappointment in the international arbitration community when Servotronics was officially dismissed in late September after a party requested the dismissal shortly after an award was issued in the underlying London arbitration that mooted the § 1782 case before the Supreme Court.
The ZF Automotive case is virtually identical to Servotronics in that it involves a private international arbitration. It is noteworthy, however, that the ZF Automotive petition was brought before judgment out of the Sixth Circuit, one the two circuit courts allowing § 1782 discovery for a private international arbitral tribunal.
On the other hand, AlixPartners presents a significantly different issue than the Servotronics matter.
AlixPartners arises not from a private international arbitration but instead from an investment case brought under the Russian-Lithuanian bilateral investment treaty. The respondent Fund now before the Supreme Court is a Russian entity pursuing claims before an ad hoc UNCITRAL-rules arbitral tribunal against Lithuania for investors’ financial losses resulting from the insolvency of the Lithuanian bank.
The Fund brought its § 1782 request for discovery in New York against AlixPartners, a financial consulting firm that had advised the Lithuanian government regarding the bank’s insolvency. The case comes to the Supreme Court after the Second Circuit, applying criteria established in a recent case that denied discovery for a case before a private international arbitration tribunal–see In re Hanwei Guo for an Order to take Discovery for Use in a Foreign Proceeding Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1782, 965 F.3d 96 (2d Cir. 2020), as amended (July 9, 2020) (available at https://bit.ly/3IxxzUK)–allowed discovery for the investment case because of the degree of governmental involvement due to the investment treaty.
For more on ZF Automotive, see Bryanna Rainwater, “The Law on Evidence for Foreign Arbitrations Returns to the Supreme Court,” CPR Speaks (Oct. 22, 202) (available here). For a CPR YouTube discussion of the cases and two other pending U.S. Supreme Court arbitration matters, see “The Latest #SCOTUS #Arbitration: Process ‘Preference’; Int’l #Discovery; Federal Courts’ Arb #Jurisdiction,” CPR Speaks (Nov. 23) (available here).
By taking both ZF Automotive and AlixPartners, the Supreme Court will now decide the scope of § 1782 for both private international and investment arbitrations.
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John Pinney is counsel to Graydon Head & Ritchey in Cincinnati. On CPR’s behalf, he acted as counsel of record in an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to accept the AlixPartners case, but not taking a position on behalf of either party. Details on the brief can be found on CPR Speaks here. His AlixPartners brief on CPR’s behalf can be found at on the Supreme Court docket page linked at the top or directly at https://bit.ly/3pzZpHj. Earlier this year, he filed a similar friend-of-the-Court brief asking the Supreme Court to accept the Servotronics case, which was accepted and later dismissed ahead of a scheduled argument. Details on the dismissal can be found in the CPR Speaks Sept. 8 posting cited above, and here. He discusses the Servotronics brief in a CPR YouTube analysis here. His Servotronics brief on CPR’s behalf can be found on the Supreme Court docket page linked at the top of this post or directly at https://bit.ly/3Ez58U4.
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