The U.S. Supreme Court case Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale et al. v. United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in 1986 dealt with issues surrounding international discovery in civil litigation and the application of foreign law within American courts. The French company, Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale (SNI), was sued by American plaintiffs over a plane crash that occurred in Iowa, involving an aircraft manufactured by SNI's subsidiary. During pretrial proceedings, the plaintiffs sought to obtain documents from SNI located in France through standard federal discovery rules rather than following procedures outlined under The Hague Convention on Taking Evidence Abroad - an international treaty providing mechanisms for obtaining evidence abroad which both France and US were signatories to. In its decision, the Supreme Court held that district courts could order parties to produce foreign-based evidence without first resorting to procedures established under The Hague Convention; however they must consider good faith compliance with these procedures as one factor when determining if such orders are reasonable or abusive.

In the dissenting opinion for Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale v. United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Justice Blackmun argued that international comity should be respected and that foreign discovery procedures should not be bypassed without first considering alternative methods. He expressed concern about potential damage to U.S.-France relations due to disregarding French blocking statutes designed to protect its citizens from intrusive American discovery practices. Additionally, he criticized the majority's decision as an overreach of judicial power by imposing U.S law on a foreign entity in disregard of France’s sovereignty. In his view, this could lead other countries to retaliate against U.S entities abroad or refuse cooperation with American courts in future cases.