Originally from International Arbitration Court Decisions - 3rd Edition

JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF SWEDEN RENDERED IN 2000 IN CASE N T 1881-99: 

THE BULBANK CASE

Subject-Matter:
Confidentiality in international arbitration in Sweden.

Findings:
A party to arbitration proceedings cannot be deemed to be bound by a duty of confidentiality, unless the parties have concluded an agreement concerning this.

Parties:
A.I. Trade Finance Inc. (“AIT”) (USA) Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank “Bulbank”) (Bulgaria) GiroCredit Bank Aktiengesells-chaft der Sparkassen (“GiroCredit”) (Austria)

Place Of Arbitration:
Sweden

Place Of Court Procedures:
Sweden

The case was reported in Mealey’s International Arbitration Report (Spring 1997, spring 2001), Nytt Juridiskt Arkiv (NJA) 1997, p. 866.

Summary

I. THE ARBITRATION

On 26 August 1983, a loan contract was concluded between Bulbank and GiroCredit. By the contract, GiroCredit made credits, subsequently increased to 350 million Austrian Schilling, available to Bulbank. In accordance with the provisions of the contract – “Applicable law and arbitration”– the contract was to “be governed according to the law of Austria, including Austria’s rules on the conflict of laws.” Disputes by reason of the contract should be determined by a panel of arbitrators in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe [the “ECE Rules”], and arbitration proceedings should take place in Stockholm.