Germany has made a reservation under Article 23 Hague Evidence Convention and does not execute letters of request “issued for the purpose of obtaining pre-trial discovery of documents as known in Common Law countries.” Long-time readers of this blog may recall that we had posts like “Is Germany’s Position on Pre-trial Discovery of Documents under the Hague Evidence Convention Softening?” (2015) and even “Germany’s Position on Pre-trial Discovery Softens!” (2017) before. Spoiler alert: Germany’s position did not change. Shortly after the 2017 post, the Legal Committee (Rechtsausschuss) of the Bundestag killed the proposed softening of Germany’s reservation under Article 23. With this note of caution, we report on a new attempt at changing Germany’s position. Read More
Tag: Pre-trial discovery of documents
Germany’s Position on Pre-trial Discovery Softens!
You read it here first, back in 2013, but at the time with a question mark, and then again in 2014 and 2015. Finally, 2017 is the year it is actually going to happen: Germany is about to change its approach to discovery of documents under the Convention of 18 March 1970 on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters, commonly known as the Hague Evidence Convention. The bill that would remove Germany’s reservation pursuant to Article 23 of the Convention* has been introduced into Parliament. It passed the Upper Chamber (Bundesrat) late last year without any objections. Read More
Is Germany’s Position on Pre-trial Discovery of Documents under the Hague Evidence Convention Softening?
In 2013, a decision by the President of the Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht) Frankfurt led me to speculate whether Germany’s position on the pre-trial discovery of docments under the Hague Evidence Convention is softening. In April 2014, the Federal Ministry of Justice came forward with a proposal to modify Germany’s position on discovery of documents and to allow it in certain circumstances. In this post, I try to summarize the various responses to this initiative. Read More
American Bar Association on Foreign Data Protection Laws in U.S. Discovery
One of the recurring themes in German-American legal relations is the culture clash of US style discovery and German style data protection. Therefore, I read with great interest that the American Bar Association (ABA) passed a resolution on the topic. Here it is – the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association resolved on February 6, 2012: Read More