SCOTUS: Chinese Manufacturer Cannot Use US Courts to Press American Firm for Evidence

Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett stands during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. Erin Schaff/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled on June 13 that a Chinese manufacturer is not allowed to use the U.S. legal system to compel the production of evidence in a private arbitration taking place overseas.

The high court held that federal district courts are unable to compel discovery in an arbitration case outside the United States governed by a private organization, even when an international treaty makes discovery a possibility, unless the nations in the treaty intended the arbitration panel to possess governmental authority.