SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Simon Arvmyren, Christopher Stridh and Mikaela Tysk, Delphi
1. General 1.1 General Characteristics of the Legal System The Swedish legal system is based on a civil law tra- dition where the main sources of law are statutes. In addition to statutes, other sources of law are the offi- cial preparatory works to statutes, case law and legal doctrine. Sweden is a member of the EU, and thus bound by the EU’s entire regulatory framework (pri- marily treaties, regulations and directives) as well as case law from the CJEU. Furthermore, case law from the ECHR is increasingly important, also in a com- mercial context. Civil litigation in Swedish courts is governed by the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure (the “Procedural Code”). Swedish civil litigation is primarily adversarial, and decisions and judgments will be based on the claims and evidence made and presented by the parties. In line with this, witness examination, which is oral, is conducted by the parties and not by the court. How- ever, the court has the authority to appoint experts on its own initiative, although this is rarely exercised in practice. Proceedings in Swedish courts involve a combination of written submissions and oral arguments. Significant weight is placed on the final hearing where, in prin- ciple, all evidence is to be presented (documentary evidence as well as witnesses of fact and experts) and the judgment may only be based on what was presented during the final hearing. These principles have, however, softened in recent years, and, in prac- tice, not all documentary evidence is now presented in extenso during the final hearing; instead, reference is made to it, and key parts of the evidence are pre- sented in more detail. Written witness statements are still very rare, and a full examination in chief and cross- examination is made of witnesses. 1.2 Court System There are three types of courts in Sweden: general courts, administrative courts (administrative courts, administrative courts of appeal and the Supreme Administrative Court) and special courts, which
resolve disputes within special areas, eg, the Labour Court and the Patent and Market Court. Civil litigation is conducted in the general courts, and therefore the focus of this article will be on the general courts. There are three levels of general courts: district courts, courts of appeal and the Supreme Court. There are 48 district courts and six courts of appeal in Sweden. In principle, all courts have jurisdiction for all types of cases – criminal and commercial as well as family law, therefore, for example, there are no spe- cialised commercial courts. However, environmental cases, patent cases, certain other intellectual property matters, law of the sea, unfair marketing practices and competition law cases are handled by specific district courts and specific courts of appeal. For all commercial cases, leave of appeal is necessary for a case to be tried by the court of appeal as well as the third and final instance, the Supreme Court. See 10.2 Rules Concerning Appeals of Judgments . Leave of appeal to the court of appeal level is granted fairly often, especially in more complex commercial cases, whereas leave of appeal to the Supreme Court is very rarely granted. With respect to the timeframe from the commence- ment of the proceeding to the trial, please see 7.8 As a main rule, the entire proceedings before Swedish courts are available to the public. This includes that the public may obtain copies of all written submis- sions and evidence submitted and that all hearings are open to the public. However, the court may, upon its own assessment, and normally upon request by a party, determine that certain documents should not be publicly available or that a hearing (or part thereof) is held behind closed doors. For commercial cases, the most relevant grounds for such a decision is that the document or testimony contains sensitive commercial information which, if disclosed, could cause considerable harm to a party involved. General Timeframes for Proceedings . 1.3 Court Filings and Proceedings
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