论美国外国主权豁免中的财产调查问题——以联邦最高法院NML基金案为视角

A Study on Postjudgment Discovery in Foreign Sovereign Immunities Cases in US——in the Perspective of the NML Case of the Supreme Court

调查豁免有别于国家豁免中传统的管辖豁免与执行豁免,其目的是保护主权者的信息安全并使主权者免受诉累的侵扰。美国联邦最高法院在NML基金案中拒绝承认所谓的财产调查豁免,此举既表明美国最高法院坚持对豁免法采严格文义解释,同时为债权人的执行活动提供了便利。《联合国国家及其财产管辖豁免公约》第24条虽不禁止法院发布财产调查令,但是出于信息安全的考量,仍禁止以制裁为后盾强行推进财产调查。现有的国家实践主要是关于判决前的调查和使馆账户调查,尚难断言存在一条严格限制判决后财产调查的习惯国际法,不过,NML基金案的调查范围仍有失之过宽之嫌。

Discovery immunity,the purpose of which is to protect the sovereign from burden and hassle of litigation or disclosure of sensitive information,is different from either immunity from adjudicative jurisdiction or immunity from enforcement.The Supreme Court of the United States in NML case denied the existence of the postjudgment discovery immunity in the FSIA,which" indicates the formalist interpretation of the FSIA and facilitates the execution.Although the UNSCI Art.24 itself does not forbid the postjudgment discovery,for the sake of security and sensitivity,it demands the forum not to enforce the discovery by the imposition of penalties.Since current practices merely concern prejudgment preliminary discovery or discovery of diplomatic accounts rather than postjudgment discovery,it is too premature to conclude that there is a international custom to forbid the postjudgment discovery.Even so,the discovery in NML case is too broad without cautions.The last part of the article deals with the solutions of the China.