Excluding Illegally Obtained Evidence In International Arbitration: A Consent-Based Approach To (In)Admissibility

This paper was first published in (2026), 22, Asian International Arbitration Journal, Issue 1, pp. 15-30, Excluding Illegally Obtained Evidence in International Arbitration: A Consent-Based Approach to (In)Admissibility – Kluwer Law Online. 

SECTION I: INTRODUCTION

Almost ninety years ago, the US Supreme Court in Nardone v. United States (1939) was called to rule upon the admissibility of evidence procured through warrantless wiretapping.¹ The evidence in question, obtained in breach of section 605 of the extant Communications Act, 1934, had been used by the trial court to convict Nardone and the other defendants of smuggling alcohol. The conviction was subsequently upheld by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that excluding the evidence would be a “reversible error,” or an error of sufficient seriousness to warrant the judgment being reversed on appeal.²