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The Lunch DIScussions are a new event series that the DIS started on 9 June 2022. They take place once a month in a virtual format during lunch time (between 1pm and 2pm) and deal with current topics from the dispute resolution practise.
On 14 July 2022, the second event in the Lunch DIScussion series, organised and moderated by Peter Bert of Taylor Wessing, looked at the decision of the US Supreme Court on the use of US pre-trial discovery in support of foreign proceedings under Sec. 1782, which was issued on 13 June 2022. The court had resolved a circuit split, and held that Sec. 1782 could not be used in support of proceedings before foreign arbitral tribunals. The case had been closely followed in the German arbitration community not the least because one of the underlying matters was a DIS arbitration.
Theodore Folkman (Folkman, Boston) set out the arguments in favour of a broad interpretation of Section 1782 to include foreign arbitral tribunals. Derek Adler (Hughes Hubbard, New York) was opposing counsel, arguing for a narrow interpretation. Finally, it was for Barbara Maucher (Noerr, Düsseldorf) to present the arguments that ultimately prevailed in the US Supreme Court. The panelists’ presentations were followed by a lively discussion of the impact of Luxshare vs. ZF on international arbitration, and of the wider context of the interpretation method the US Supreme Court applied in its decision.
Peter Bert,
Taylor Wessing