Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-401_2cp3.pdf
Page Number: 8.0

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ZF AUTOMOTIVE US, INC. v. LUXSHARE, LTD. 

Opinion of the Court 

declared Snoras insolvent.  The Fund for Protection of In-
vestors’  Rights  in  Foreign  States—a  Russian  corporation
and the assignee of the Russian investor—claims that Lith-
uania expropriated certain investments from Snoras along 
the way.

The Fund initiated a proceeding against Lithuania under
a bilateral investment treaty between Lithuania and Rus-
sia (titled “Agreement Between the Government of the Rus-
sian  Federation  and  the  Government  of  the  Republic  of 
Lithuania  on  the  Promotion  and  Reciprocal  Protection  of
the Investments”).  App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 21–518, p. 
56a.  The treaty seeks to promote “favourable conditions for 
investments made by investors of one Contracting Party in
the territory of the other Contracting Party.”  Ibid. 

Relevant here, the treaty addresses the procedure for re-
solving  “any  dispute  between  one  Contracting  Party  and
[an] investor of the other Contracting Party concerning” in-
vestments in the first Contracting Party’s territory.  Id., at 
64a.  It provides that if the parties cannot resolve their dis-
pute within six months, “the dispute, at the request of ei-
ther party and at the choice of an investor, shall be submit-
ted to” one of four specified forums.  Id., at 64a–65a.  The 
Fund chose “an ad hoc arbitration in accordance with Arbi-
tration Rules of the United Nations Commission on Inter-
national Trade Law (UNCITRAL),” with each party select-
ing one arbitrator and those two choosing a third.  Id., at 
65a; App. in No. 21–518, p. 159a.  Under the treaty, “[t]he
arbitral decision shall be final and binding on both parties
of the dispute.”  App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 21–518, at 65a. 
After initiating arbitration, but before the selection of ar-
bitrators,  the  Fund  filed  a  §1782  application  in  the  U. S. 
District Court for the Southern District of New York, seek-
ing  information  from  Freakley  and  AlixPartners  about 
Freakley’s  role  as  temporary  administrator  of  Snoras. 
AlixPartners resisted discovery, arguing that the ad hoc ar-
bitration panel was not a “foreign or international tribunal”