Letters Blogatory

The Blog of International Judicial Assistance
By Ted Folkman

Month: March 2019

  • Case of the Day: Sudan v. Harrison

    Case of the Day: Sudan v. Harrison

    The case of the day is Republic of Sudan v. Harrison (S. Ct. 2019). I’ve covered the case several times before; my post on the Second Circuit’s decision on Sudan’s petition for a rehearing was my most recent substantive look, and guest author Jared Hubbard reported more recently on the oral argument. The case arose…

  • The Carta Arbitral

    I was at a talk last week at which I heard about a new procedural mechanism in Brazil that I hadn’t heard of before: the carta arbitral (the “arbitral letter”). The purpose of the arbitral letter is to give the tribunal a means of requesting assistance from a court in carrying out its orders (for…

  • Case of the Day: AIS v. Thoratec

    The case of the day is AIS GmbH Aachen Innovative Solutions v. Thoratec LLC (9th Cir. 2019). AIS and Abiomed Europe GmbH sought leave to take discovery under § 1782 in aid of a patent infringement case Abiomed had brought against Thoratec in Germany involving heart pumps. A magistrate judge granted the application and ordered…

  • Lago Agrio: Donziger Appeals

    Steven Donziger has sought leave to appeal the decision of the Appellate Division holding that Judge Kaplan’s findings that he had corrupted the Ecuadoran judicial process in the Lago Agrio case were preclusive and could not be relitigated in Donziger’s bar discipline case.

  • Private International Arbitration And § 1782: Are We Nearer To A Reckoning?

    In In re Application and Petition of Hanwei Guo (S.D.N.Y. 2019), the court, following the Second Circuit’s precedent in National Broadcasting Co. v. Bear Stearns & Co., 165 F.3d 184 (2d Cir. 1999), held that a private international arbitral tribunal was not a “tribunal” for purposes of § 1782, and thus it denied an application…