Redstone Chambers

Kaj Hobér

 

 Mr Hobér has been counselling Swedish and foreign corporations and governmental agencies in general commercial and corporate law matters throughout his professional career, with an emphasis on international arbitration.

In addition, he has been involved in the legal aspects of East-West trade for more than twenty-five years, advising clients from both sides in a variety of transactions including, inter alia, joint ventures, industrial cooperation agreements, turn-key contracts for various types of plants, construction and civil engineering contracts, licensing and other transfer of technology agreements, countertrade transactions, privatization transactions, oil and gas projects, different capital markets transactions, trading in Russian securities, loan transactions, and mergers and acquisitions.

During the early 1990’s Mr Hobér was deeply involved in privatization matters in Eastern Europe, primarily in the Russian Federation and the Baltic States. In the Russian Federation he worked as a legal advisor to the equivalent of the privatization ministry drafting legislations and regulations for the privatization of state-owned enterprises, including in the oil and gas sector.

Mr Hobér represents both Western, Central East European and Russian parties in international arbitrations taking place in Stockholm, Moscow, London, Paris, Vienna, Washington D.C., and elsewhere. He has been involved in a large number of oil arbitrations, relating primarily to Northern Africa, the Middle East, China and the former Soviet Union. All in all, Mr Hobér has acted as arbitrator, including chairmanships, in more than 200 international arbitrations.

Mr Hobér has been involved in several dozens of investment arbitrations as counsel and arbitrator. Currently he is involved in a number of arbitrations against the Russian Federation, as well as against other states under the Energy Charter Treaty and other investment disputes under Bilateral Investment Treaties.

His experience from investment arbitrations includes parties from Europe, the USA, Latin America, Africa and Asia, for example, the following cases:

Before the US-Iran Claims Tribunal in The Hague, Mr Hobér has acted for several US oil companies, including Mobil, Exxon, Conoco, Phillips and Sun, in their expropriation claims against Iran. He also represented British Petroleum in a related claim against Iran. The oil companies had long term concession agreements, which were terminated by Iran. All these cases were eventually settled.

Mr Hobér was involved as counsel in the nullification proceedings in two well-known ICSID cases, viz., Klöckner v. Camerun and Amco v. Indonesia and in the subsequent new arbitrations. He acted for Klöckner and Indonesia, respectively.

Moreover, Mr Hobér has been involved in several investment – and investment type – arbitrations concerning states in Eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union. For example, he has acted as counsel both for and against the Republic of Kazakhstan in three arbitrations based on bilateral investment treaties and/or customary international law. Mr Hobér represented Mr Sedelmayer in the first investment arbitration against the Russian Federation. In the first Energy Charter arbitration leading to an award, he represented the Claimant – Nykomb AB – against the Republic of Latvia. Mr Hobér has also been co-counsel of the private investor in an ICSID arbitration involving one of the Baltic States, and represented two US investors in two arbitrations against the Estonian Republic concerning privatization matters. He is currently representing private investors in several investment arbitrations against the Republic of Ukraine under the Energy Charter Treaty.

In the wake of the financial crisis in Russia in 1998, Mr Hobér was involved in two investment arbitrations against the Russian Federation. The disputes were settled at an early stage.

He has also acted as arbitrator – party-appointed, as well as Chairman – in several investment arbitrations involving, e.g., Azerbaijan, Georgia, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Moldova, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, and Croatia.

Mr Hobér was the resident Managing Partner of Mannheimer Swartling’s office in Moscow between 1997 and 2000.

Education and Degrees

 

• Bachelor of Arts (fil.kand.) University of Uppsala 1974 (modern languages: Russian, German, French, and English)

• Master of laws (jur.kand.) University of Uppsala 1977

• Master of Comparative Law (M.C.L.) University of Illinois College of Law, 1978

• Doctor of laws (jur.dr.) University of Uppsala 2001

 

Various Positions

 

• Research assistant at the University of Uppsala, Department of Law, Spring 1977

• Law clerk at the District Court of Uppsala, Uppsala, 1978-1980

• Junior judge at the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm, 1980-1982

• Lecturer in Soviet and East European Law as well as International Arbitration Law at the University of Uppsala, since 1980

• Professor of East European Commercial Law, Uppsala University 9 June 1997- 30 June 2009

• Commissioner at the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva, 1998-2003

• Arbitrator at the Appeals Tribunal of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, since January 2001

• Arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, since 2002

• Arbitrator at the ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport during the Torino Olympic Games of 2006

• Professor of International Law, Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP) at the University of Dundee 2010

 

Law Practice

 

• Associate, Wetter & Wetter, Stockholm, 1982-1983

• Associate, White & Case, Stockholm, from 1983-1989

• Partner, White & Case, Stockholm, 1989-1994

• Partner Mannheimer Swartling, Stockholm, from 1994

 

Appointments

 

• Member, Advisory Board of The Parker School Journal of Soviet and East European Law

• Member, Advisory Board of Russian and CIS Business Law Report

• Member, Advisory Board of East West Executive Guide

• Member (Deputy Chairman), Board of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (1992-2009)

• Member, Board of the Swedish Branch of International Law Association

• Member, Government Committee which prepared the new draft Swedish Arbitration Act (1992-1994)

• Member of the LCIA Court of Arbitration

• Member (corresponding), the ICC Institute of Business and Law

• Member, Academic Council of Riga Graduate School of Law

• Member (Deputy Chairman), Board of the Swedish-Russian Chamber of Commerce

• Editor-in-Chief, Survey of East European Law

• Editor, The Uppsala Yearbook of East European law

• Member, Board of SILD (Swedish Institute for Legal Development)

• Past Chairman, The Swedish Fulbright Alumni Association

• Past Chairman, IBA Committee on Investment Treaty Arbitration

• Member of the Club of Arbitrators , Chamber of Arbitration of Milan (Camera Arbitrale Nazionale e Internazionale di Milano)

• Member of the Association’s Boards of Directors, American Arbitration Association

• Member of the AIPN Educational Advisory Board

• Member of the Advisory Committee for the Journal of Arbitration and Mediation (Sherbrooke University, Faculty of Law, Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in collaboration with Canadian Arbitration Congress)

 

Listed as Arbitrator on the Panels of

 

• Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce, Vienna

• Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Moscow

• Chamber of Commerce of St. Petersburg

• Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, Kiev

• American Arbitration Association

• ICSID Arbitration Center, Washington D.C.

• International Arbitration Court, Almaty

• Chamber of Commerce & Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic, Bishkek

• China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, Beijing

• Hong Kong International Arbitration Center

• Recommended Arbitrators of the Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Commerce

• Panel of Arbitrators Kuala Lumpur (KLRCA)

• 2001 Edition of International WHO’S WHO of Professionals

 

Membership in Professional Organizations

 

• The Swedish Bar Association (Sveriges Advokatsamfund)

• The American Bar Association (Foreign Member)

• The American Society of International Law

• The British Institute of International and Comparative Law

• The Nordic Association for Intellectual Property Law (Nordisk Förening för Industriellt Rättsskydd)

• International Law Association (Swedish branch)

• International Arbitration Club, London

• The Swedish Society for Comparative Legal Research (Svenska Samfundet för jämförande rättsforskning)

• The American Club of Sweden

• The Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN)

• The Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association

 

Publications

 

Books

 

• Arbitration in Sweden (co-editor), The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Stockholm, 1984, second (revised edition)

• The legal regulation of the U.S. Securities Market, Stockholm, 1988

• Joint Ventures in the Soviet Union. A legal Treatise, New York, 1989

• Enforcing Foreign Arbitral Awards against Russian Entities, New York, 1993

• Transforming East European Law. Essays on Russian, Soviet and East European Law, 1997

• Protection of Property Rights in the Baltic Sea Region – Potemkin villages or reality? (1998) (Report prepared for the Baltic Sea Business Summit 1998)

• Extinctive Prescription and Applicable Law in Interstate Arbitration, Uppsala, 2001

• The Impeachment of President Yeltsin, New York, 2003

• Essays on International Arbitration, New York, 2005

• Investment Arbitration in Eastern Europe: In Search of a Definition of Expropriation, 2007

• Translation of Vladimir V. Putin’s dissertation (published in The 2006 Uppsala Yearbook of East European Law, 2008

• International Commercial Arbitration in Sweden (2011)

 

Articles

 

• Defenses to Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in the United States. 48 Nordisk Tidskrift for International Ret 38-57 (1978)

• Protection of Foreign Trade Marks in the Soviet Union. Nordisk Immateriellt Rättsskydd 392-412 (1978). (Also published in 14 Texas International Law Journal 367-388 (1979))

• The Doctrine of Separability under Swedish Arbitration Law, including Comments on the Position of American and Soviet Law. Svensk Juristtidning 257-271 (1983)

• Party Substitution under Swedish Arbitration Law, Yearbook of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce 43-52 (1983)

• Legal aspects of Soviet Foreign Trade. (A three-part article published in Swedish in Affärsrätt under the following titles:

  i. Hur man lyckas i affärer med Sovjet (How to succeed in doing business with the USSR), Affärsrätt 1/1985, 25-29

  ii. Att förhandla med ett sovjetiskt utrikeshandelsföretag (Contract negotiations with a Soviet Foreign Trade Organization), Affärsrätt 2/1985, 28-30

  iii. Finns det kaviar för västländer? (Is there caviar for Western countries? - An overview of the legal aspects of countertrade), Affärsrätt 4/1985, 30-32)

• Mothandel allt vanligare inom världshandeln idag (Countertrade growing more frequent in today's world trade). Handelskammartidningen 9/1985, 16-17

• Das anzuwendende Recht beim internationalen Schiedsverfahren in Schweden. Recht der Internationalen Wirtschaft, October 1986

• The Pitfalls of Countertrade. International Financial Law Review, March and April 1987

• Arbitration in Moscow. Arbitration International, April 1987

• Joint ventures with the Soviet Union. International Financial Law Review, November 1987

• Tillämplig lag på utländska företags emissionsprojekt i Sverige (Applicable law on prospectuses in connection with new issues by foreign companies in Sweden.) Svensk Juristtidning 582-608 (1987)

• Schiedsort Stockholm: Verjährung und das anzuwendende Recht. 1988 Jahrbuch für die Praxis der Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit

• Negotiating Joint Ventures in the Soviet Union. International Financial Law Review, November 1988

• Joint Enterprises in the Soviet Union, in 1989 Yearbook of Socialist Legal Systems.

• Ogiltighet och klander i internationella skiljeförfaranden. Högsta domstolen meddelar beslut i Uganda-målet (Invalidity and challenge of awards in international arbitrations. The Supreme Court decides the Uganda case). 1989 Yearbook of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce 1989

• International Commercial Arbitration in Sweden: Two salient problem areas, in Liber Amicorum for Professor Lars A.E. Hjerner 1989

• Rättsliga aspekter på värdepappersmarknadens internationalisering (Legal aspects on the internationalization of the securities market). Svensk Juristtidning 426-450 (1989)

• Arbitration and the Swedish Courts, 1990 Yearbook of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce

• Joint Ventures Between Enterprises from Different Economic and Political Systems, in Swedish National Reports to the XIII International Congress of Comparative Law, 1990

• Joint Stock Companies a la Russe, Parker School Bulletin on Soviet and East European Law, Vol. I, No. 6, Aug. 1990, 2

• Soviet Company Law Reform - Quo Vadis? Parker School Bulletin on Soviet and East European Law, Vol. I, No. 7, Sept. 1990, 6

• Judicial Review in International Arbitration: The Swedish Supreme Court Decision in the Uganda Case, Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1990, 596-616

• Joint Ventures Between Enterprises from Different Economic and Political Systems, Swedish National Reports to the XIIIth International Congress of Comparative Law, Acta Instituti Upsaliensis Iurisprudentiae Comparativae XVI, 1990, 117-151

• Teknikhandel med Östeuropa (Technology Transfers with Eastern Europe) in EDB-retten i Europa/Computer Law in Europe/76-93 (1991)

• The Russian Law on Foreign Investments. Parker School Bulletin on Soviet and East European Law, Vol. 2, No. 7, Sept. 1991, 5

• Recent Trends in Foreign Trade and Investment, is to be published in Investing reform: Doing Business in a Changing Soviet Union (New York University Press), 1991

• Från sovjetisk planekonomi till rysk marknadsekonomi: Juristernas Via Dolorosa/ From Soviet Planned Economy to Russian Market Economy: (The Via Dolorosa of Lawyers), Svensk Juristtidning, 688-733 (1991)

• Choice of Law and Joint Ventures in the Soviet Union. F.J.M. Feldbrugge (ed.) The Emancipation of Soviet Law, 107-124, (Kluwer Academic Publishers, the Netherlands) 1992

• Folkrättens historia: det ryska bidraget (The History of International Law: the Russian Contribution, Svensk Juristtidning, 459-478 (1993)

• Enforcing Foreign Arbitral Awards Against Russian Entities, Acta Juridica Hungarica, 35 1993, 257-304

• Enforcing Foreign Arbitral Awards against Russian Entities. Arbitration International, Vol.10, No.1, 1994

• In Search for the Centre of Gravity. Applicable Law in International Arbitrations in Sweden. Swedish and International Arbitration 1994

• A Game called Russian Oil: Trading Oil in the FSU - Recent Developments, Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law, 96 - 107 (1995)

• Russian Oil Legislation: An Overview. The Parker School Journal of East European Law, Vol. 2 Nos 4-5 1995

• Handelskammarens regler om förenklade skiljeförfaranden, Juridisk Tidskrift 1995/96 153

• Vägen Österut ("The Way East, Constitutional Law Aspects of EU:s enlargement into Central- and Eastern Europe") 1996. Report to the Swedish Government, SOU 1996:15, 45-81

• Förfarandet i skiljetvister. På spaning efter ett billigare och förenklat skiljeförfarande – möjligheter och begränsningar. Rapport till det 34:e nordiska juristmötet 1996

• Encyclopedia of International Commercial Litigation (Chapter on Sweden) (1999) 1-38

• Das neue schwedische Gesetz über Schiedsverfahren, neue Regeln für das Schiedsinstitut des Handelskammer Stockholm, Recht und Praxis der Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit, Beilage 4 zu Heft 4 11/1999, 8-10

• Sista striden mellan internationalister och territorialister? – Berättelsen om Hillmarton och Chromalloy, Festskrift till Ulf K. Nordenson (1999) 195-213

• The Technique of Contract Negotiations and Dispute Resolution, in International Trade legislation in the Baltic Region (2000) 24-33

• Verkställighet av utländsk skiljedom i Ryssland, 3 Defensor Legis 2000, 419

• Arbitration Reform in Sweden, 17 Arbitration International 351-387 (2001)

• Practitioner’s Handbook On International Arbitration (Chapter on Sweden) (C.H.Beck DJOF) (2002) 1001-1046

• Practitioner’s Handbook On International Arbitration and Mediation (Chapter on Sweden) (Juris Publishing) (2002) III. 6-1 – III. 6-50

• Advocacy in International Commercial Arbitration: Sweden, in Advocacy in International Arbitration, 169-194 (2003)

• Arbitration Involving States, in Leading Arbitrators’ Guide 139-162 (2003)

• Investment Arbitration in Eastern Europe: Recent Cases on Expropriation, (The American Review of International Arbitration 2003/Vol. 14 No. 4)

• Skydda företagets investeringar, PointLex legala affärer 20-23 (Nr 1, 2004)

• The Trailblazers v. the Conservative Crusaders, or Why Arbitrators Should Have the Power to Order Ex Parte Interim Releif, in International Council for Commercial Arbitration Congress series no. 12, 272-277 (2004)

• Ownership of the Oil and Gas Resources in the Caspian See: Problems and Solutions – International Arbitration and Contractual Clauses, Stockholm Arbitration Report 2004:1, 1-40 and Journal of Eurasian Law, Vol. 1, No. 1

• Parallel Arbitration Proceedings – Duties of the Arbitrators: Some Reflections and Ideas, in Dossiers: Parallel State and Arbitral Procedures in International Arbitration 243-267 (2005)

• War and Peace between Russia and Sweden 1323–1809. A Chronology of Border Treaties, in Forging a Common Legal Destiny: Liber Amicorum in honour of William E. Butler 701-713 (2005)

• The First Energy Charter Treaty Arbitral Award (Journal of International Arbitration 22(2): 83-104, 2005)

• Intressekonflikter och skiljeförfaranden – Vägmärken och trafiksignaler från IBA (Conflicts of interest and arbitration – Traffic sign and traffic signals from IBA) in Nord & Thorell (eds.) Intressekonflikter och finansiella marknader 226-238 (2006)

• State Responsibility and Investment Arbitration, in Ribeiro (ed.), Investment Arbitration and the Energy Charter Treaty 261-290 (2006)

• Interim Measures by Arbitrators, Arbitral Provisional Measures: The Actual Practice, International Arbitration 2006: Back to Basics? – ICCA International Arbitration Congress (721-750)

• Chronique de Jurisprudence suédoise (1996-2004), Journal du Droit International Avril-Mai-Juin 2006 no. 2 (719-752)

• “Fair and Equitable Treatment” – Determining Compensation, in The International Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) 79-102, 2007

• The Energy Charter Treaty – Awards Rendered (in Dispute Resolution International Vol. 1 No. 1 June 2007)

• The Energy Charter Treaty: An Overview (in The Journal of World Investment & Trade vol. 8 No. 3 June 2007, 323-356)

• New Rules of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, LCIA – Arbitration International Vol. 23 No. 2 2007

• Provisional application and the Energy Charter Treaty: the Russian Doll Provision (in International Arbitration Law Review, International Law Reporter) Tuesday, 10 July, 2007

• Die neue Schiedsordnung 2007 des Schiedsgerichtsinstituts der Stockholmer Handelskammer (in SchiedsVZ 4/2007, Juli/August 2007, 5. Jahrgang (207-212)

• Russia’s Border with China. A Brief Chronology. Offprint ”Liber Amicorum for Anders Fogelklou”, (2008)

• State Responsibility and Attribution (in The Oxford Handbook of International Investment Law, 2008, 550-583)

• The Special Status of Agreements to Arbitrate: The Separability Doctrine, Mandatory Stay of Litigation, Dispute Resolution International, Vol. 2 No. 1, 56-74 (2008)

• The Role of the Energy Charter Treaty in the Context of the European Union and Russia (in Investment Protection and the Energy Charter Treaty, 2008, 235-306)

• The EU-Russia Energy Dialogue – The Legal Dimension ( in The 2006 Uppsala Yearbook of East European Law, (2008), 107-173)

• The EU-Russia Energy Dialogue – The Legal Dimension – With Particular Emphasis on the Energy Charter Treaty, The Journal of Eurasian Law (JEL), Vol. 1, nos. 2-3 213-268, (2008)

• Encyclopedia of International Commercial Litigation (Chapter on Sweden) (2008) 1-39

• MFN Clauses and Dispute Resolution in Investment Treaties: Have We Reached The End of The Road? in Liber Amicorum for Christoph Schreuer, 2009

• Investor-State Arbitration and China – An Overview, Chapter 16 in Business Disputes in China, Second Edition (2009), pp. 209-224

• Remedies in Investment Disputes, Chapter I in Investment treaty Law Current Issues III, Remedies in International Investment Law, Emerging Jurisprudence of International Investment Law (2009), pp. 3-16

• Investment Arbitration and the Energy Charter Treaty, Journal of International Dispute Settlement, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2010), pp. 153–190

• Law and Policy in the Russian Oil and Gas Sector, Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law, Vol, 27, No. 3, pp. 420-444

• Russian Energy Policy and Dispute Settlement: An Overview Chapter XII in European Energy Law Report VII (Energy Law 11), pp. 235-266

• Review of Investment Treaty Awards by Municipal Courts, Chapter XXIV in Arbitration Under International Investment Agreements, A Guide to The Key Issues (2010), pp. 635-669

• Misconduct by Proxy? Trying to Understand Article 22 of the ECT, Liber Amicorum Bernardo Cremades (2010) pp.573-597

• Compensation: A Closer Look at Cases Awarding Compensation for Violation of Fair and Equitable Treatment Standard, Chapter XXII in Arbitration Under International Investment Agreements, A Guide to The Key Issues (2010), pp. 573-599

• Territorial Disputes and Natural Resources: the Melting of the Ice and Arctic Disputes, 60th Anniversary Commemorative Book of the Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Commerce (2010), pp. 751-774

 

Reviews and Notes

 

• Review of Boguslavskij, Pravovye formi nauchno-technicheskogo i promyshlenno-ekonomicheskogo sotrudinechestva SSSR s kapitalisticheskimi stranami. 9 Review of Socialist Law 381-384 (1983). (Also published in Tidskrift för Juridiska Föreningen i Finland, 108-112 (1984).)

• Review of Molnar, Öst-väst handel (East-West Trade). Affärsrätt 1985, 27

• Review of International Chamber of Commerce, Guide to Arbitration. Svensk Juristtidning 744-747 (1985)

• Review of David, Arbitration in International Trade. Yearbook of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce 45-50 (1985)

• Review of Böckstiegel, Arbitration and State Enterprises. Survey on the National and International State of Law and Practice. Yearbook of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce 50-52 (1985)

• Review of Boguslavskij, Mezhdunarodnaja peredatja technologii: pravovoe regulirovanie. (International and Comparative Law Quarterly, October 1986)

• Finality of Swedish Awards. The Nordic Saga in the Laczay Estate ./. AGA AB Case. 1 Arbitration International 77-81 (1986)

• New Swedish Competition Act. Business Law Brief, 6/1986, 15

• Judgement of Swedish Court of Appeal Upholds Arbitral Award, (Mealey's International Arbitration Report, February 1987)

• Review of Sinclair, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, second edition. Svensk Juristtidning 50-56 (1987)

• Ny folkrättslig litteratur (New literature on public international law) Svensk Juristtidning 67-78 (1989)

• Review of Robert G. Kaiser, Why Gorbachev Happened, 1991, in Uppsala Nya Tidning, 15 January 1992

• Review of Rose Brady, Kapitalizm, 1999, in Finanstidningen, 9 February 2000

• Review of Strobe Talbott, The Russia Hand, in Dagens Forskning, 2-3 December 2002

• Review of Soili Nystén-Haarala, Russia Law in Transition, in Nordisk Öst-forum, Nr. 4, 2002

• Arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty, in Who’s Who Legal, 2005

• In Memoriam, Gunnar Lagergren, The Journal of the London Court of International Arbitration, Vol. 25 No. 4, (2009)

• Territorial Disputes and Natural Resources: the Melting of the Ice and Arctic Disputes, Oil & Gas Journal (Feb. 7, 2011), pp. 54-60