Will US Courts Yield to National Laws Which Thwart Discovery on Terrorism Lawsuits ?
Another interesting chapter is unfolding in Motley Rice's civil suit against alleged sponsors of the 9/11 attacks. The issue now headed for the 2d Circuit - on a mandamus petition - is whether the district judge rightly sanctioned defendants for refusing to produce documents based on national laws intended to protect records against disclosure.
Various parallels are easy to envision, including, for example, Swiss secrecy laws, and old Canadian laws that created discovery issues in tort litigation. It's also not too hard to envision nationally important or sovereign-owned businesses operating under self-serving national statutes intended to thwart discovery. Think, for example, about Chinese drywall manufacturers.
AmLaw has been covering the story for some time. Go here for the current article with links to the petition, other briefs, and prior articles.
