The Extent of the Arbitral Tribunal's Power to Manage Discovery in the United States of America

Abstract

Parties to an arbitration increasingly need the tribunal's help to obtain documents and testimony for use in the proceedings. Many authors have discussed 28 USC 1782, but a key provision of the Federal Arbitration Act often gets lost in the shuffle. In this article, the authors analyze recent case law interpreting 9 USC 7, which gives the tribunal the authority to subpoena documents for use at a hearing. Recent case law has revealed differences in the circuits and merits consideration when plotting the strategy of handling an arbitration.

Keywords: federal arbitration act, arbitration, subpoena, hearing, documents