Introduction—State immunity and international arbitration

As a general rule, Swedish courts will respect state immunity in relation to sovereign acts but not for commercial acts. Accordingly, the signing of an arbitration clause generally constitutes a Waiver of immunity in respect to arbitral and court proceedings relating to a contract. Problems may however arise in the Enforcement stage of an arbitral award. The question then becomes whether the property subjected to the Execution measures is significantly used for official purposes. If that is the case, the property is protected. If not, State immunity cannot be invoked, which will be elaborated below.

In this context, it is important to clarify that arbitration operates independently