Cross-border disclosure in English proceedings: managing conflicts with foreign law, blocking statutes, data protection and evidence-gathering routes (letters of request, section 1782, Cayman CIDL)—principles and recent authorities
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Practice notes
This Practice Note offers a perspective on the key factors and potential issues that may arise when managing documentary evidence and disclosure in cross-border litigation where a foreign law has influence and effect. For material covering all aspects and issues of foreign law, see: Applicable law—foreign law—overview. In addition to foreign law matters, the standard rules on disclosure will still apply and be relevant. For guidance, see:
- Disclosure—overview
- Disclosure Scheme (Business & Property Courts)—overview
- Inspection—overview
- Specific disclosure and specific inspection—overview
- Privilege and without prejudice communications—overview
Foreign laws and disclosure
Whether disclosure is required, or inspection should be allowed, is determined by the lex fori, that is, the law of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were started in that forum. This is because disclosure and inspection are procedural in character, as the Court of Appeal explained in Bank Mellat v HM Treasury (2019). For cases in the courts of England and Wales (the English courts), the procedural law of England and Wales will be applied by the court. However, this does not negate the need to understand the local (foreign) law of the country where the client is based or the documents are located. It will be important to obtain...
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Web page updated on 21/05/2026
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