论美国与欧盟国家域外取证领域的冲突及其解决

The Solution of the Conflicts between the U.S.and the EU Countries in the Field of Cross-border Discovery

随着信息技术的发展,欧盟国家对数据隐私保护法实施的加强,欧盟国家与美国在域外取证特别是域外电子取证领域的冲突更加激烈。美国法院要求有关当事人提交某些证据文件包括电子存储信息,如果不予提交则可能会面临美国联邦民事程序规则中的制裁。如果当事人遵守美国法院的要求提交有关信息,又可能面临其本国法律禁止提交有关信息的规定,同样也可能会招致民事或刑事制裁。为此,不仅有关国家间需要进行更多的国际合作,而且国际民事诉讼的有关当事人必须确定合理的诉讼策略,以防受到实际的制裁。我国应借鉴欧盟国家的经验,建立完善我国个人数据保护法律制度以及跨国数据流转方面的法律制度,同时理性对待美国跨国民事诉讼中的证据开示制度。

With the development of information technology and the enhancement of the protection for data privacy in the EU countries, the conflicts between the U. S. and EU countries in the aspect of taking of evidence abroad especially e-discovery is becoming more and more serious. The U. S. courts may require the transnational litigants to provide some documents including ESI. The refusal of providing the required documents may result in the sanctions under Federal Civil Procedure Rules. If the parties provide the documents according to the U.S. courts orders, they may violate the prohibitions of their own national laws, which also would lead to civil or criminal punishment. Therefore, not only the relevant countries need further cooperation, but also the transnational litigants have to choose a rational litigation strategy in case of real punishment. We need to learn from the EU countries to establish and improve our legal system of individual date protection and cross-border transfer of the data. Moreover,we must take a proper attitude to the discovery in transnational litigations in the U.S. courts.