SWEDEN Trends and Developments Contributed by: Jerker Kjellander, Matilda Kronqvist and Selma Beganovic, Vinge
The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) updated its Mediation Rules at the beginning of 2025 to increase predictability and accessibility. They feature a fixed-fee structure for the mediator and the SCC’s administrative fee, robust confidentiality obligations extending also to the par - ties, and flexibility as to the status of any settlement: parties may keep a settlement non-binding, make it contractually binding, or request that the mediator transition into an arbitrator to issue an award reflect - ing the settlement, thereby creating an instrument capable of direct enforcement. The Mediation Act is based on EU Directive 2008/52/EC on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters. The pur - pose of the Mediation Act is to promote mediation as a dispute resolution method. By virtue of the Media - tion Act, the parties to a mediation agreement can apply for enforceability of the agreement at court. The Mediation Act applies to both domestic and cer - tain foreign mediation procedures. Domestic media - tion is mediation carried out in Sweden. The Mediation Act does not cover mediation that takes place within the framework of a case or matter before a court, another authority or an arbitral tribunal. Only certain foreign mediation agreements can be declared enforceable in accordance with the Media - tion Act. A mediation agreement is referred to as a foreign mediation agreement if it has been entered into outside Sweden. Foreign mediation agreements can only be declared enforceable in cases where the par - ties had their domicile or habitual residence in Sweden at the time of commencement of mediation, or if one of the parties had its domicile or habitual residence in another EU member state (except for Denmark). To be able to enforce a mediation agreement in accordance with the Mediation Act, the parties must reach a mediation agreement but must also agree to the application for a declaration of enforceability. The requirement for consent is a prerequisite for the application for a declaration of enforceability. In cases where a party has agreed to a declaration of enforce - ability in connection with the mediation agreement but does not agree in connection with the application for a declaration of enforceability, it may also be a question of a breach of contract.
An application for a declaration of enforceability is made to the district court where one of the parties is domiciled. In cases where the parties are not domi - ciled in Sweden, Värmland District Court is the com - petent forum. Although the rise of mediation as a dispute resolution tool has been discussed in Sweden since the adop - tion of the Mediation Act in 2011, mediation has, in the authors’ experience, remained a very peripheral phenomenon in the Swedish dispute resolution land - scape, particularly compared to English-speaking countries. However, the last couple of years seem to suggest a slight uptick in the number of mediations conducted in Sweden, possibly in light of extended handling times for litigation in the general courts. While it is still too early to tell, mediation may now finally become the commonly used tool it has long been hailed as. The 2019 Hague Convention On 2 July 2019, the Hague Convention on the Rec - ognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters (the “2019 Hague Con - vention”) was adopted at the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The EU acceded to the Convention on 29 August 2022. For the EU member states (except for Denmark) including Sweden, the Convention entered into force on 1 September 2023. The circle of contracting states continues to expand. The Convention governs recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, ie, one of the three main issues in international private and procedural law. The other two – choice of law and jurisdiction of courts – are not addressed. However, the Convention does contain so-called indirect jurisdictional rules, against which the jurisdiction of the originating court is assessed in a requested convention state. For a judgment to be recognised or enforced under the Convention, the court that issued the judgment must have based its jurisdiction on provisions that correspond to one of the indirect jurisdictional grounds accepted by the Convention. The Convention is based on international legal co- operation, and should be seen as a complement to the 2005 Hague Convention on choice of court agree -
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