以上两单词在诉讼法中均有让对方知晓证据的含义。discovery (“证据开示”）（等同documentary discovery)主要适用民事诉讼程序，其具有强制性，为法院主持进行，主要形式包括: interrogatories (书面询问对方当事人）、depositions (书面诘问证人）、requests for admissions (事实确认请求）以及 requests for production (出示证据请求）[1]。disclosure ( “证据披露”）过去多用于刑事案件，由控方向被告方展示某些情况，特定情况下被告方也会向控方披露情况，此种披露多不带强制性；但如控方所占有的证据能帮助被告人进行辩护，根据正当程序规则， 该证据必须向被告方披露。在当今的民事程序改革浪潮中，英国大法官（Lord Woolf)在其“司法审判参与权”（Access to Justice) 报告中建议在民事诉讼程序中用disclosure替换discovery, 以避免无限制地要求证据开示而导致诉讼的拖延。总体说来, 民事诉讼中的disclosure应比其在刑事诉讼中的原含义更具强制性，披露的事项由法律规定而不是象证据开示那样由当事人随 意要求[2]。
 
[1] " The compulsory disclosure，at a party's request，of information that relates to the litigation. ”Cf. Bryan A. Gamer, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th edition, at p. 468, West Group (1999).
[2]“In some jurisdictions discovery is usually referred to as disclosure, which is just the same thing from the point of view of the giver of the information rather than the receiver. ”Cf. James E. Clapp, Random House Webster's Dictionary of the Law, at p. 140，Random House (2000).