Judgment of the Supreme Court of Sweden, 19 November 2007, Case No. T 2448-06/NJA 2007 s. 841

Summary: The appellant challenged a Swedish arbitral award, alleging that an arbitrator’s consultancy work raised doubts as to his impartiality in violation of Section 8 of the Swedish Arbitration Act.  The appellant alleged that the arbitrator had been an employee of the law firm representing the respondent in the arbitration and that the arbitrator was therefore not authorised to decide the dispute.  The Swedish Supreme Court concluded that the respondent was a commercially important client for the law firm and that, in such circumstances, loyalties between the client and employees of the firm must be presumed to exist.  The court agreed that the circumstances objectively undermined the arbitrator’s impartiality and set the award aside.