Cross-Border
Legal Counsel in Sweden

Sweden is a civil-law jurisdiction with a Nordic legal tradition, with disputes decided by professional judges across district courts, courts of appeal, and the Supreme Court. As an EU member, EU instruments including Brussels Ia apply directly.
For foreign parties, Sweden's most distinctive feature is its prominence in international arbitration, particularly through the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, which has long been a preferred neutral forum for disputes involving Eastern European and CIS parties. Swedish courts are strongly supportive of arbitration.

For civil and commercial judgments from other EU member states, recognition and enforcement in Sweden run through the Brussels Ia Regulation (Recast), without separate exequatur, with the debtor bearing the burden of any limited refusal grounds such as a public-policy conflict or defective service.
For arbitral awards, Sweden applies the New York Convention, and its courts recognise and enforce foreign awards under the Convention's narrow refusal grounds. For judgments from outside the EU and outside applicable treaties, Sweden applies its domestic recognition rules, examining jurisdiction, service, and public policy.
The real work is locating enforceable assets in Sweden, sequencing the application to prevent dissipation, and anticipating the debtor's defences. We coordinate the Sweden enforcement with any parallel action elsewhere.
Swedish enforcement runs through the EU recognition framework and the New York Convention, with Swedish courts applying both reliably. Sweden's particular relevance, however, is less as an asset-enforcement venue than as the seat of awards: an SCC award frequently needs enforcement elsewhere, and we coordinate the Swedish arbitration with enforcement in the jurisdictions where the respondent's assets actually sit.

The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) is one of the world's leading arbitral institutions and a historically preferred neutral seat for East-West and CIS-related disputes. Swedish courts apply the New York Convention and are reliably pro-arbitration. For litigation, the courts handle commercial matters within the tiered structure.
Stockholm's neutrality and arbitration-friendly judiciary make it a frequent choice in contracts connecting Western parties with Eastern European and CIS counterparties — relevant to many cross-border matters we coordinate

Sweden rewards arbitration expertise, particularly for East-West disputes. We scope the Swedish issues alongside every other jurisdiction in play, deliver a strategy memo within five business days, and report to you in English.

Sweden's role as a leading neutral arbitration seat — especially for disputes involving CIS and Eastern European parties — gives its matters a distinctive character that aligns closely with VLO's cross-border and CIS-related practice. We act in Stockholm-seated arbitration and coordinate it with the wider enforcement and recovery strategy.
For clients, this means the Swedish arbitration element is handled with the requisite expertise and coordinated with the broader matter under one partner, with transparent fees and discretion.
Stockholm's role as a leading neutral seat for East-West and CIS-related disputes means Swedish matters often sit at the start of a recovery chain: the award is Swedish, but the assets are elsewhere. Coordinating the Stockholm proceeding with the downstream enforcement — frequently in EU holding jurisdictions — is where the value lies, and it aligns closely with our CIS Region practice.