Originally from The Swedish Arbitration Act of 1999, Five Years On: A Critical Review of Strengths and Weaknesses

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I propose to limit my comments on “The Arbitration Agreement” in the Swedish Arbitration Act of 1999 (the “Act”) to Section 2 of the Act dealing with the right of a party to apply to a court for a ruling on arbitrators’ jurisdiction, notwithstanding the express right of the arbitrators in the Act to rule on their own jurisdiction.

I. SECTION 2 OF THE SWEDISH ARBITRATION ACT

The ability of an arbitral tribunal to decide on its own jurisdiction, which is recognized in Article 16(1) of the UNCITRAL Model Law (the “Model Law”), is expressly enshrined on Section 2, first paragraph, first sentence, of the Swedish Arbitration Act of 1999 (the “Act”).  This sentence provides (in English translation):

“The arbitrators may rule on their own jurisdiction to decide the dispute.”

According to a Swedish commentator, this means that arbitrators may rule on their own jurisdiction whenever the existence or validity of the arbitration agreement is challenged.