Document Production Requests In International Arbitration And Due Process Concerns

Document production requests in international arbitration play an important role, since they ensure that the parties have access to documents that are not in their possession, in order to provide sufficient proof for their claims. In parallel with this important role, document production requests are closely related to the parties' right to due process, since the documentation of an issue may totally depend on a document production request.

An unsuccessful document production request may give rise to claims of infringement of the right to due process, and may even lead to requests to set-aside, or grounds for non-recognition or non-enforcement of the arbitral award, which makes it an important concern for parties, as well as arbitrators. The link between document production requests and concerns of right to due process shall be analyzed in this article.