Current Issues in Swedish Arbitration by Lars Heuman

Abstract

Current Issues in Swedish Arbitration by Lars Heuman, Co-published by Kluwer Law and Taxation Publishers, Deventer, The Netherlands, and Juristforlaget, Stockholm (1990, 287 pp., incl. Preface, Contents, Statutes, Bibliography and Table of Cases). Paperback US $80. An overwhelming preponderance of domestic Swedish contractual disputes are subject to arbitration clauses. (On page 43 of this collection of essays, the author gives a clear sense of the pro-arbitration bias of the Swedish business community when he suggests as a reason for the rare instance of preferring court litigation over arbitration that ‘the other party is untrustworthy or is known as being difficult to do business with and therefore may be expected to delay an arbitration’!) It is therefore hardly surprising that the Swedish law of arbitration is rich in caselaw as well as commentary. Professor of Procedural Law at the University of Stockholm and Director of the Swedish Institute of Arbitration law, Lars Heuman has had the occasion to research and reflect upon his topics at great depth, and the eight essays (of which the first six have already been published as articles, between 1987 and 1990) accordingly reflect a degree of comprehensiveness rarely encountered. As a result, the interest of the book is not limited to those who may be contemplating arbitral proceedings in Sweden. (For those, the excellent monograph published under the aegis of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Arbitration in Sweden , remains the standard English-language text.) It will also appeal to arbitration specialists who are interested in comparative law. What Professor Heuman provides here is of incomparably higher quality than the superficial and often unreliable English-language summaries published in a variety of periodicals, dealing with the law of countries – like Sweden – whose primary source materials are unavailable in one of the major languages. Prof. Heuman's topics are the following: the exclusion of ‘indisputable claims’ from arbitration, ‘singular succession’ and arbitration, court assisted testimony, discovery, judicial control of arbitration, ex officio right of arbitrators to award interest on costs, …