Introduction

Litigants outside the United States have at their disposal a very powerful tool to obtain discovery in the broad US sense of the word-from persons in the United States, whether or not those persons are involved in the dispute. 28 U.S.C. § 1782 ("s.1782") permits an action to be launched in a federal district court for the sole purpose of obtaining such discovery of testimony, documents, or other physical evidence that is within the jurisdiction of the court for use in proceedings in a "foreign or international tribunal".[1] Doubts have been expressed as to whether ...