Service on a defendant who lives in a different state or country outside the jurisdiction of the Court requires special procedures prescribed under the Hague Service Convention if the recipient’s country is a signatory.
Service on defendants in many South American countries and some other countries is effected through the Letter Rogatory process.
A letter rogatory or letter of request is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for some type of judicial assistance. The most common remedies sought by letters rogatory are service of process and taking of evidence.
Courts may serve documents only to individuals within the court’s jurisdiction. One exception to this rule is states that invoke universal jurisdiction, granting their courts ubiquitous domain. Therefore, a person seeking to take an action against a person in another country will need to seek assistance from the judicial authorities in the other country. This is of course assuming the court in his own country has jurisdiction to hear the case matter. As a hypothetical example, Alice in the United States wishes to sue Roberto in Argentina. Alice issues her summons in a U.S. court, and must then petition a court in Argentina by means of a letter rogatory to serve the process on Roberto.
The use of letters rogatory for purposes of service of process to initiate court action is now largely confined to the Americas, as between countries in Europe, Asia, and North America, service of process is effected without resort to letters rogatory.
Where a defendant’s whereabouts are unknown, the Court may permit service by publication, usually in a newspaper.
