Originally from Between East and West: Essays in Honour of Ulf Franke

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I. INTRODUCTION

For almost a century, Swedish arbitration has been synonymous with the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce; and for more than three decades, the Arbitration Institute has been synonymous with its distinguished Secretary General, Ulf Franke. Their collective work over so many years in the cause of international arbitration has created in Sweden a hospitable and efficacious seat for a wide range of transnational disputes, particularly those emanating from Eastern Europe and China. These developments do not arrive by accident. They are the product not only of institutional and doctrinal initiatives, but also a consequence of the particular relationship between private arbitration and State courts, here the Svea Court of Appeal and the Swedish Supreme Court with their special interest in the development of international arbitration. It is significant that many Swedish judicial figures have sat as SCC arbitrators and have taken active part in the work of the Arbitration Institute, from Sture Petrén, Sten Rudholm, Nils Mangård to many other senior figures up to the present day. Again, this is no accident: it is the personal recognition that, in all countries where international arbitration thrives, its success depends upon a benevolent understanding of its function shared between judges, arbitrators and arbitral institutions.

In this contribution, the development between the English Commercial Court and London Arbitration is explored by reference to judicial statistics collected under the English Arbitration Acts 1979 and 1996, following the abolition of the Special Case under the 1889-1950 Acts. It draws on the statistical work of the United Kingdom’s Departmental Advisory Committee on the Law of Arbitration (the “DAC,” responsible for the 1996 Act) and, more recently, Lord Mance’s Advisory Committee on Section 69 of the 1996 Act.