On the Revolution of E-Discovery in the U.S. and its Implication for China

The new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require the early attention of parties to E-discovery issues, establish claw back procedure for inadvertently produced privileged documents, and include the“safe harbor” provisions with respect to ESI lost as a result of the routine operation of an electronic information system. However, E-discovery in the U.S. is in conflict with the legislations of privacy and blocking statutes in the EU. In order to resolve the conflicts, we should modify the Hague Evidence Convention. Studying the E-discovery in the U.S.,We can also draw some useful implications for China,which include improving legislations about E-discovery,enacting personal data legislation, using the Hague Evidence Convention or bilateral treaty with the United States to reduce E-discovery conflicts, improving the awareness of the U.S E-discovery,etc.