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Partner, Mannheimer Swartling. |
Conducts mediations in Swedish, English, German, and Russian. Subject Specialties: domestic and international commercial disputes, including construction, oil and gas, and joint ventures.
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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 (adjunct) of East European Commercial Law, Uppsala University as of 9 June 1997.
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.
Law Practice
Associate, Wetter & Wetter, Stockholm, 1982-1983.
Associate, White & Case, Stockholm as from 1 October 1983.
Partner, White & Case, Stockholm, as from 1 June 1989.
Partner Mannheimer Swartling, Stockholm, as from 17 January 1994.
Nature of practice
Mr. Hobér has been counselling Swedish and foreign corporations and governmental agencies in general commercial and corporate law matters throughout his professional career.
In addition, he has been deeply involved in the legal aspects of East-West trade for 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, counter-trade transactions, privatization transactions, oil and gas projects, different capital markets transactions, trading in Russian securities, loan transactions and mergers and acquisitions.
Furthermore, he represents both Western, Central East European and Russian parties in international arbitrations taking place in Stockholm, Moscow, London, Paris, Vienna and elsewhere. He has also been involved in a number of oil arbitrations, relating primarily to Northern Africa, the Middle East, China and the former Soviet Union. All in all, he has acted as arbitrator in more than 150 international arbitrations (including chairmanships) and as counsel in approximately 150 international arbitrations.
During the past 25 years he has worked very extensively on foreign investment projects in Central and Eastern Europe representing primarily Swedish, Finnish, American, British, French and German companies, banks and organizations as well as government bodies on the legal aspects of doing business in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, focusing on privatization, capital markets transactions, oil and gas projects, construction projects and international arbitration.
He was a member of the expert group of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (Uncitral), which prepared a legal guide for international counter-trade contracts. He is a member of the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) Task Force on Joint Ventures and Foreign Investment in the Russian Federation. Within the framework of the ICC Task Force he has been, and continues to be, involved in drafting legislation together with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Justice.
In December 1991, he was retained by the Republic of Estonia as its legal advisor in privatization matters. He worked together with the Ministry of Economy and the State Property agency in developing a mass privatization program and in drafting legislation in the privatization field.
He has also been retained by the International Finance Corporation (the "IFC") as its outside legal counsel for privatization matters in the Russian Federation. The IFC is working with the Privatization Ministry of the Russian Federation on a number of pilot privatization projects. Such work is being performed in the basis of a Technical Assistance Agreement signed by the World Bank/IFC and the Russian Government. He has been heavily involved in preparing normative acts and documentation for the first small scale privatizations in the Russian Federation, which are under way in Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorkij), the third largest city in the Russian Federation.
In March 1992, he started to work as part of a joint World Bank/EBRD working group to assist the GKI in the initial structuring of Russia's Mass Privatization Program (MPP). This project involved intensive and detailed preparatory work relating to all aspects of a comprehensive privatization program, including voucher systems, auctions, competitive tenders, enterprise corporatization and restructuring, enterprise initiated privatization plans, corporate governance, strategies, foreign investment, investment funds, inter-ministerial coordination and information dissemination.
In early June 1992, he was part of a team selected, pursuant to a competitive tender managed by the World Bank and EBRD, to be the legal adviser to the GKI to continue work on the MPP with other Western advisers who were members of the winning consortium. In this role, he has participated extensively in the creation, shaping and implementation of the MPP, including design of the voucher program, the establishment of investment funds and the commencement of company auctions.
In January 1992, he started to work with the IFC and the GKI in the structuring and implementation of a pilot privatization program for retail shops, restaurants and communal services in the City of Nizhny Novgorod. This program, which received worldwide media attention, was the first substantial privatization program to be implemented in Russia and has been duplicated in cities throughout Russia such as Volgograd and Tomsk.
Beginning in November 1992, he has been advising the GKI and a group of Western advisers in structuring and implementing a series of pilot auctions with respect to large state owned companies. For example, he worked intensively on the privatization of the Bolshevik Biscuit Factory.
During 1991-1992, he advised the Estonian Government - the Department of State Property of the Ministry of Economy - on privatization matters. The work included preparation of a comprehensive draft privatization program as well as the drafting of relevant legislation. In the course of his work, he advised the Department of State Property concerning a number of potential pilot privatizations in different sectors of the Estonian economy. In 1994 and 1995, he assisted the Estonian Privatization Agency in a series of privatization transactions.
He was the resident managing partner of Mannheimer Swartling’s office in Moscow between 1997 and 2000.
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, Board of the Swedish Scientific Institute of Arbitration Law.
Member, Advisory Board of East West Executive Guide.
Member, Board of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.
Member, Board of the Swedish Branch of International Law Association.
Member, Government Committee which prepared the new draft Swedish Arbitration Act (1992-1994).
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).
Chairman, The Swedish Fulbright Alumni Association
Listed as arbitrator on the panels of:
the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce, Vienna,
the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Moscow,
the Chamber of Commerce of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg,
the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, Kiev,
the American Arbitration Association and
the ICSID Arbitration Center, Washington D.C.
the International Arbitration Court, Almaty,
the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of The Kyrgyz Republic, Bishkek
the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, Beijing
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.
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.
Articles
Defenses to Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in the United States. 48 Nordisk Tidsskrift 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 3-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 enterprises in the Soviet Union, in 1989 Yearbook of Socialist Legal Systems.
Joint ventures with the Soviet Union. International Financial Law Review, November 1987.
Negotiating joint ventures in the Soviet Union. International Financial Law Review, November 1988.
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).
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.
Schiedsort Stockholm: Verjährung und das anzuwendende Recht. 1988 Jahrbuch für die Praxis der Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit.
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 XIIIth 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Handelskammarens regler om förenklade skiljeförfaranden, Juridisk Tidskrift 1995/96 153.
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).
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).
Chronique de Jurisprudence suédoise (1996-2004), Journal du Droit International Avril-Mai-Juin 2006 no. 2.
The Energy Charter Treaty – Awards Rendered (in Dispute Resolution International June 2007).
The Energy Charter Treaty: An overview, The Journal of World Investment & Trade June 2007/vol. 8 No. 3.
New Rules of the Arbitration institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, LCIA – Arbitration International vol. 23 No. 2 2007.
Die neue Schiedsordnung 2007 des Schiedsgerichtsinstituts der Stockholmer Handelskammer 207, SchiedsVZ 5 Jahrgang Heft 4 Juli/August 2007.
Review and notes
Review of Boguslavskij, Pravovye formi nauchno-techniches-kogo 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).)
New Swedish Competition Act. Business Law Brief, 6/1986, 15.
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).
Finality of Swedish Awards. The Nordic Saga in the Laczay Estate ./. AGA AB Case. 1 Arbitration International 77-81 (1986).
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 regulorivanie. (International and Comparative Law Quarterly, October 1986).
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.