28 U.S.C. § 2637
Section 2637 · Exhaustion of administrative remedies
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 520 court decisions — leading case Corus Staal BV v. United States (2007)
Most recently applied in Zhaoyuan Junbang Trading Co. v. United States (February 2026)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 19 U.S.C. § 1677B · 19 U.S.C. § 1516A · 28 U.S.C. § 1581
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) A civil action contesting the denial of a protest under section 515 of the Tariff Act of 1930 may be commenced in the Court of International Trade only if all liquidated duties, charges, or exactions have been paid at the time the action is commenced, except that a surety's obligation to pay such liquidated duties, charges, or exactions is limited to the sum of any bond related to each entry included in the denied protest.
(b) A civil action contesting the denial of a petition under section 516 of the Tariff Act of 1930 may be commenced in the Court of International Trade only by a person who has first exhausted the procedures set forth in such section.
(c) A civil action described in section 1581(h) of this title may be commenced in the Court of International Trade prior to the exhaustion of administrative remedies if the person commencing the action makes the demonstration required by such section.
(d) In any civil action not specified in this section, the Court of International Trade shall, where appropriate, require the exhaustion of administrative remedies.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
Section 515 of the Tariff Act of 1930, referred to in subsec. (a), is classified to section 1515 of Title 19, Customs Duties.
Section 516 of the Tariff Act of 1930, referred to in subsec. (b), is classified to section 1516 of Title 19.
Prior Provisions
A prior section 2637, acts June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 982; June 2, 1970, Pub. L. 91–271, title I, §118, 84 Stat. 280; July 26, 1979, Pub. L. 96–39, title X, §1001(b)(4)(E), 93 Stat. 306, related to witnesses and inspection of documents, prior to the general revision of this chapter by Pub. L. 96–417. See section 2641 of this title.
Effective Date
Subsec. (c) of this section applicable with respect to civil actions commenced on or after Nov. 1, 1980, see section 701(b)(1)(B) of Pub. L. 96–417, set out as an Effective Date of 1980 Amendment note under section 251 of this title.