Revised Arbitration Act enters into force
Sweden’s revised Arbitration Act enters into force on 1 March 2019, following a nearly five-year long legislative process to update the Arbitration Act of 1999.
The revisions are relatively minor and aim at making Swedish arbitration law more easily accessible, especially for non-Swedish parties, and to ensure that Stockholm continues to be an attractive venue for international dispute resolution.
“The revised Arbitration Act ensures that Sweden maintains its role as a jurisdiction with a strong, modern legal framework for international dispute resolution. It is in line with international trends, and will foster growth and development of international arbitration in Stockholm”, says SCC Secretary General Annette Magnusson in a comment.
The following provisions are among those revised or added in the new Act:
- Applicable substantive law. The new Act gives arbitrators explicit mandate to determine the applicable substantive law in the absence of party agreement, but does not specify the basis of that determination.
- Challenge grounds. The grounds for challenging an arbitral award are revised to require that an excess of mandate must have affected the outcome of the case in order for the award to be set aside.
- Challenge procedure. The timeline for applications to set aside an arbitral award is reduced to 2 months from the date when the party received the award. Parts of the challenge procedure can be undertaken in English, without interpretation into Swedish.
- Leave to appeal. The revised Act introduces a leave to appeal requirement, which enables the Supreme Court to limit its examination to issue(s) of precedential value.
A discussion of the new features is available in a post by Patricia Shaughnessy on Kluwer Arbitration Blog. More in-depth information about the legislative process that led to the revised Act is available here (Swedish only).
The SCC will publish English and Russian translations of the revised Arbitration Act in the near future.
SAVE THE DATE: On 20 May 2019, the SCC and the Swedish Arbitration Association will host a half-day conference to review and discuss the revised Arbitration Act and the latest developments in Swedish arbitration practice. Read more about the event here.