Second Circuit Applies Supreme Court Ruling on 1782 to Arbitrations under the ICSID.

The Court found that the governing treaty afforded claimant three potential venues to hear the dispute: (1) a court of the appropriate party country, (2) an ICSID panel, or (3) an UNCITRAL panel. In a recent decision by Master Judge Robert M. Levy of the Eastern District of New York, In Re: Alpene Ltd., case number 1:21-mc-02547, the Court extended the Supreme Court's holding in AlixPartners, LLP v. Fund for Prot. of Investors' Rights in Foreign States, which prohibited private parties from petitioning a federal court for discovery rulings in aid of private arbitration, to include disputes before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Given that there is an over-arching need to interpret Section 1782 in harmony with the Federal Arbitration Act (which prohibits parties from utilizing courts to compel discovery except in exceedingly narrow circumstances), the Court ultimately concluded that the ICSID tribunal was simply not imbued with the requisite governmental authority. [Extracted from the article]