The Swedish arbitration act (SAA) of the 1999, which made Swedish jurisdiction one of the most interesting in Europe for what concern the international arbitration, has been recently reformed in March 2019.

The necessity, and the aim of the revision of the SAA, was to make the arbitration process more efficient, and to keep the Swedish jurisdiction attractive for foreign parties, for the resolution of international disputes (to “maintains its [Sweden] role as a jurisdiction with a strong, modern legal framework for international dispute resolution. The new legislation is in line with international trends, and will foster growth and development of international arbitration in Stockholm”, as Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) said).

In fact, many times, in occasion of international buying/selling goods operations, the parts choose to assign to Swedish jurisdiction the authority to decide on the potential controversies. The characteristics that made the Swedish jurisdiction so attractive in past years are its speed, transparence, and affordability.

The innovations are few, but quite significant. Firstly, the new SAA give the possibility to the parts to choose which substantive law apply to the dispute. If the parts do not choose any substantive law, that will be chosen by the arbitral tribunal. Arbitrators can also decide ex aequo et bono, but only if parties agree with that. This is coherent with the aim to attract foreign parties.

Secondly, in multi-parties controversies, the arbitral tribunal can nominate arbitrators for all the parties, removing all arbitrators already nominated, when they don’t reach an agreement on indicate an arbitrator.

In addition to that, when an arbitrator steps down or is removed and the reason of the removing was already known when he was nominated, the arbitral tribunal give the opportunity to the part who initially indicated the arbitrator to suggest the new arbitrator. This can be a very important tool to avoid the impasses and make procedure quicker and efficient.

Another addiction states that is now possible to reunite the arbitration, if necessary, which was not possible under the old SAA of 1999. That can happen if the parties agree with that, and if the reunion can be positive for the arbitrations involved. In the same way, it is now possible the separation of the arbitrations.

The last important innovations are linked to the opportunity to challenge the arbitration, which is possible in front of the Appeal Court in 2 months from the receiving (before the revisitation the limit was of 3 months).

The challenge is now possible for excess of mandate only if this excess has influenced the decision. The arbitration challenged in the Appeal Court cannot be challenged again in front of the Supreme Court, if the Appeal Court does not give its permission, which is possible only if the decision can have potential to be a legal precedent.

The new SAA will be applicable to proceedings started after its enter into force (1st march of 2019). All the other proceedings started before will follow the old SAA.

Those new features of the SAA could improve that institution, making it more interesting and suitable for international controversy, helping the Swedish jurisdiction to be the best option for international parties, like it has been during last decade.

In fact, the most important obstacle that the precedent SAA had was the possibility of parallel litigation before the Swedish courts and an arbitral tribunal over arbitral jurisdiction, which is now not permitted.