SCC (Stockholm Chamber of Commerce)

Abstract

Founded in 1917, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) is one of the world’s oldest and most respected arbitral institutions. The Institute has its roots in the period leading up to World War I when international arbitration became widespread for resolving inter-state and commercial disputes.

The Cold War reinforced the Institute’s critical position as Sweden served as a neutral forum for the resolution of the highly sensitive issues arising between the United States and Soviet Union; one of these controversial affairs being the dispute over the construction of the two superpowers’ respective embassies in Moscow and Washington DC.

The embassy controversy contribute to the signing of the Optional Clause Agreement in the US–USSR Trade Relations Treaty in 1977, where the SCC was designated as the preferred arbitration institute. Nowadays, the Institute handles about 200 cases a year. Nearly half of its workload comprises of purely international cases where none of the parties are Swedish. The caseload of the Institute has been generally on the rise and a large percentage of its cases are over €1 million. The SCC achieves particular notoriety in the investor-state sphere where 191 bilateral investment treaties list the SCC as a designated institute or appointing authority. The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) also identifies the SCC as an authority for resolving disputes arising out of the multilateral treaty.

The Institute derives its success from a well-respected board comprising of Swedish and international practitioners, the general pro-arbitration culture in Sweden, the historical neutrality of Sweden, and the Swedish legal tradition where arbitration plays an important role in the resolution of commercial disputes. A responsive secretariat actively supports the Institute, while operating fluently in English, Swedish and Russian, with additional support in other languages like Spanish.

Keywords: Arbitration, Arbitral institutes