Servotronics Inc. v. Boeing CO. Considerações sobre a Seção 1782 em Auxílio às Arbitragens Comerciais Estrangeiras e Reflexões para o Panorama Brasileiro da Arbitragem

Resumo

On March 30, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in Servotronics Inc. v. Boeing Co., 954 F.3d 209 (4th Cir. 2020) that U.S. federal courts may order parties to produce documents and testimony in aid of foreign private commercial arbitrations pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782 (“Section 1782”).  The decision represents the latest appellate court decision to hold that Section 1782 may be utilized in aid of foreign private commercial arbitration proceedings, and deepens an existing circuit split on the subject, as the Courts of Appeals for the Second and Fifth Circuits have held the opposite. 

This article aims to present comments on the Servotronics decision and whether it can be considered one step towards a safer scenario for the use of Section 1782 in aid of commercial arbitrations.  In addition, this article also presents some thoughts on the implications of this discussion to commercial arbitration seated in Brazil, when parties intend to resort to the U.S. courts’ aid for discovery.