I. INTRODUCTION

The principal purpose of discovery of evidence in international arbitration necessarily is the same as it is in relation to civil trials at common law: to enable parties to ascertain the existence, whereabouts and details of facts relevant to their claims and defenses.1 Parties cannot prosecute or defend against claims on the basis of pleadings alone; they need evidence to prove their cases and to challenge the factual bases of their adversaries’ contentions, and that evidence often is found only in the files of the adverse party. Common law courts therefore require parties, early in the proceedings, to disclose the existence of all relevant (or potentially relevant), non-privileged documents, whether those documents bolster or undermine their own positions. The parties themselves may then elicit additional evidence from other parties, and even from non-parties with discoverable information. The common law judge merely serves as the litigants’ umpire, adjudicating discovery disputes and imposing sanctions for any non-compliance with discovery orders.