Judgment of the Supreme Court of Sweden, 12 November 2010, Case No. Ö 2301-09/NJA 2010 s. 508

Summary: The respondent challenged Stockholm as the seat of arbitration, alleging an insufficient connection to the Swedish legal system under the Swedish Arbitration Act. The Supreme Court of Sweden affirmed the principle of party autonomy and rejected the challenge. The court explained that where parties agree to Sweden as the place of arbitration, Sweden is the seat of the arbitration, regardless of whether parties or arbitrators hold hearings in another country. Because the parties agreed to Sweden as the seat, Swedish law applied to the dispute and the Swedish courts had competence to rule on the tribunal’s jurisdiction.