International Law and Foreign Investigatory Subpoenas Sought to Be Served without the Consent or Cooperation of the Territorial Sovereign: Impasse or Accommodation?

This Article examines the global investigation of certain types of business conduct and the fact that customary international law and the political principle of territorial sovereignty prohibit one state from carrying on investigative functions within another state. The author examines the decision in FTC v. Compagnie de Saint-Gobain-Pont-a-Mousson, which held that the authority of the United States to prescribe rules of law with international application does not necessarily encompass the power to enforce such rules abroad via service of process. The author argues that the impasse between nations, which results from the enforcement dilemma, must be resolved through cooperation at the international level.