In a 9-0 opinion delivered by Justice Ruth Ginsburg, the United States Supreme Court last week ruled that the federal courts are not “bound to accord conclusive effect” to a foreign government’s statement of its own law under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 44.1, in Animal Science Products, Inc. et al., v. Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. et al.
The decision overruled the opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in In re Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation, 837 F. 3d 175 (2d Cir. 2016), in which the circuit court had set forth a “highly deferential rule” and concluded that whenever a government makes a reasonable statement of its own law in U.S. court proceedings, the U.S. court is bound to follow it. This issue had come before the Second Circuit on an appeal of a $147M damages award for illegal price fixing of vitamin C by Chinese sellers. China’s Ministry of Commerce had argued to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York that the conduct was required by Chinese law and that the defendants were shielded by the act of state doctrine. The district court was not persuaded and had ruled in favor of purchasers Animal Science Products, Inc. and The Rains Co. that the anticompetitive conduct was a voluntary agreement between the Chinese vitamin C manufacturers. The case proceeded to trial, and the jury...
