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The main difficulty with adopting such an expansive interpretation of the Orders is that Letters contain very little in the way of detailed procedure.

In brief, they request that the appropriate

witnesses be directed to produce the requested records and to

appear for testimony, and that the Attorney General of Hong Kong

be given notice of the times of the depositions in order to ba

present to examine the witnesses. The overall lack of detail here,

combined with the lack of a olear mandate in the orders that the

procedure set forth in the Letters is intended to govern tha

discovery, compel the conclusion that the Letters do not provide

for ex parte depositions and that no such proçedure was adopted by

the orders,

In summary, the orders did not prescribe a procedure which authorized the taking of depositions without notice to Osman. Therefore, Osman was improperly denied his right to contest the

of course

it has occasionally bean said that "Letters Rogatory are customarily received and appropriate action taken with respect thereto ex parte." ·In Re Letters Rogatory from Tokys District, Tokyo, Japan, 539 F.24 1216, 1219 (9th Cir. 1976); Boporé In Ra Letter of Request From Crown Prosecution Service, 870 F.2d 686 (D.C. Cir. 1989) Application of sumar, 123 F.R.D. 467

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(9.D.N.Y. 1988); In Re Lettere Rogatory Issued by Director of Inspection of Government of India, 385 F.2d 1017 (2d Cir. 1967). However, this statement does not contemplate ex parts discovery taken pursuant to the Letter of Request, but rather refers only to the process of presenting the request to a court and to obtain the order authorizing discovery. Indeed, such ex parte applications are typically justified by the fact that the parties will be give adequate notice of any discovery taken pursuant to the request and will then have the opportunity to move to quash the discovery o to participate in it. Tokyo District, supra, 539 F.2d at 1219.

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