Culture Clash: Foreign Blocking Statutes and Privacy Laws--Legitimate Legal Protections or Devious Barriers to Litigation?

Any lawsuit that involves a party from Europe or various other civil law jurisdictions presents potential for the discovery process to be confounded by laws that prohibit production of documents pursuant to foreign laws, such as the court rules in the US and Canada. Domestic "blocking" laws governing those non-North American parties may prohibit the disclosure of documentary productions in a foreign lawsuit, or require redaction of a vast array of personal information from every single producible document, or prohibit a representative witness from submitting to a compulsory deposition, etc. Violation of these types of laws by a resident of the foreign state is potentially punishable by imprisonment in some jurisdictions.

The panelists, who have confronted these issues directly, will explain these types of laws, discuss how they have been treated by Canadian and American courts, and suggest methods for balancing recognition of these foreign laws with the legitimate rights of litigants.