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

Preview Page

I. INTRODUCTION

The following presentation addresses briefly three issues relating to arbitral proceedings:

(i) interim measures of protection;

(ii) court assistance in aid of arbitration (in particular, court-assisted evidence taking); and 

(iii) security for costs.

All of these issues are dealt with in Dr. Patricia Shaughnessy’s Symposium Report as far as Swedish arbitration law is concerned. In the following, I shall comment on some remarks made in her submission. Being a Finnish lawyer, I have chosen a comparative law approach, with a view of describing how the Swedish and Finnish arbitration law and practice concur with, and partly deviate from, each other with regard to these issues. I remain hoping that this approach is of interest to arbitration practitioners from jurisdictions with arbitration regime similar to that of Sweden and Finland.

II. INTERIM MEASURES OF PROTECTION

A. Arbitrator-Ordered Interim Measures

There is no internationally accepted definition of the concept of “interim measures” in the context of arbitration. It is generally submitted that interim measures are temporary in nature and intended to assure a specified protection until the time of the award.