Mannheimer Swartling, Malmö

There have not been many reports in this Review in recent years about Swedish construction law or the construction market in Sweden.1 This has not been due to a lack of construction activity in the country. The Swedish construction market has grown over the past years and a great number of large projects have been completed in the public and private sectors. Swedish construction law, however, is a field which has not seen very substantial development in the past years. There are several reasons for this. Construction law is a field where the Swedish legislator has never been very active. There is no Swedish statute specifically regulating construction contracts.2 Further, Sweden is a country where arbitration is normally used as a dispute resolution method for commercial contracts. As a consequence, Swedish court practice within the field of construction law is limited. Also, construction law is a field of law which, traditionally, has not been the subject of academic research or writing. The legal literature in the field has largely been limited to handbooks and commentaries to the standard forms. Simply speaking, there has not been much to write about. At this point, however, this Correspondent is of the view that there are certain developments which warrant a brief update.

The construction sector has always been a very important industry sector in Sweden. It employs almost 10% of the total workforce in Sweden and is the second largest employment sector after the healthcare sector. In the early