Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale v. United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa

Justice Blackmun,

with whom Justice Brennan, Justice Marshall, and Justice O’Connor join, concurring in part and dissenting in part.

Some might well regard the Court’s decision in this case as an affront to the nations that have joined the United States in ratifying the Hague Convention on the Taking of Evidence *548Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters, opened for signature, Mar. 18, 1970, 23 U. S. T. 2555, T. I. A. S. No. 7444. The Court ignores the importance of the Convention by relegating it to an “optional” status, without acknowledging the significant achievement in accommodating divergent…