SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Jerker Kjellander, Matilda Kronqvist and Selma Beganovic, Vinge
• the award includes determination of an issue which, in accordance with Swedish law, may not be decided by arbitrators; or • it would clearly be incompatible with the basic principles of the Swedish legal system to recognise and enforce the award (ordre public). During the proceedings in the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm (as described in 4.4 Process of Enforcing Arbitral Awards ) for recognition and enforcement of the foreign arbitral award, documents that are filed will become public, as a general rule. However, certain information in submitted documents may be subject to limitations on publicity under the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act. For example, informa - tion about a party’s business or management condi - tions will be kept confidential if it can be assumed that its disclosure would cause that party considerable harm. It is common for arbitral awards to be consid - ered largely confidential, at least if requested by one of the parties to the enforcement proceedings. Furthermore, there are normally no hearings on rec - ognition and enforcement. If a hearing takes place, general Swedish rules on judicial procedure would apply. As a general rule, court hearings are open to the public, but a party may request that the hearing be held in camera and thus not be public. The court may grant such a request insofar as it relates to the information qualifying for protection under the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act and the court deems it to be of extraordinary importance that such information should not be disclosed. 4.2 Variations in Approach to Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Generally, Sweden’s approach to enforcement does not vary for different types of arbitral awards, as long as they are enforceable according to the requirements described in 4.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforce- ment of Arbitral Awards . Through the implementation of the Washington Con - vention of 1965 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitration Judgments in Certain International Investment Disputes, an arbitration award in cer - tain such disputes can, under certain conditions, be enforced directly as a Swedish court’s final judgment.
However, the ECJ’s Achmea decision from 2018 might pose an obstacle to enforcement in such cases. 4.3 Categories of Arbitral Awards Not Enforced Under Swedish law, an arbitral award is considered to have been rendered in the country where the pro - ceedings have their seat of arbitration. Swedish law recognises an award as either domestic or foreign, and therefore does not recognise the concept of a non-domestic award. The Swedish court will try to establish a country, but in the event that this is not possible, it will not be possible to enforce the arbitral award. The recognition and enforcement of a foreign award shall also be refused if a court finds non-compliance with the requirements referred to above. Furthermore, certain interim decisions are not considered judg - ments under the New York Convention and are there - fore not enforceable. 4.4 Process of Enforcing Arbitral Awards Arbitral awards made in arbitrations seated in Sweden are enforced in the same manner as domestic court judgments. For foreign awards, an application must be made for recognition and enforcement to the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm. This court’s examination of the application only covers the status of the arbitral award, and does not include such objections to the judgment that can be made in the actual enforcement. The arbitral award must be attached to the application in an original or certified copy. The judgment must also be certified and translated in its entirety into Swedish, unless the Svea Court of Appeal decides otherwise. It is rarely necessary to translate documents in Danish or Norwegian into Swedish, as there is a language convention between the Nordic countries which pre - scribes that, as far as possible, they shall be entitled to communicate in their own language when in con - tact with Swedish authorities. Further, documents in English are sometimes accepted without translation, but the practice in this regard varies.
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