The U.S. Supreme Court Limits the Scope of Judicial Assistance in Private International Arbitral Proceedings Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1782 in its Recent Decision of ZF Auto. US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd., 596 U.S. ___ (2022)

The U.S. Supreme Court has recently held that private adjudicatory bodies do not count as “foreign or international tribunals” in terms of 28 U.S.C. §1782 (hereinafter §1782), the statute which permits U.S. district courts to order testimony or the production of evidence “for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal.” Such decision has clarified that the statute only reaches governmental or intergovernmental adjudicative bodies, and therefore resolved a circuit split. Thus, it should be abundantly clear now that judicial assistance from U.S. district courts are no longer available for discovery purposes in private arbitration proceedings abroad.