Chair no. 1 - Eric M. Runesson

Jurist.
Elected: 2018.

Eric M. Runesson is a Justice of the Supreme Court and has previously worked as a lawyer, researcher and teacher, primarily in the fields of contract law, negotiation, mediation and other forms of dispute resolution.

Born in Stockholm in 1960, Eric M. Runesson grew up in the southern suburb of Farsta. His early university studies were in the history of ideas, languages, literature and art. After initially planning to pursue a career as a historian of ideas, he eventually switched to law. In 1986, he received a Master of Laws degree from Stockholm University and commenced work that same year at Stockholm District Court. However, he soon left that post in order to pursue a doctorate in contract law at the Stockholm School of Economics, followed by a master’s degree at Harvard Law School (1989). Upon returning from Harvard, he sought to combine his theoretical studies with practical experience. Balancing research with a position at a law firm, his intention was to develop himself into a reflective legal practitioner. It was also then that his doctoral studies began to gather momentum. In 1996, he defended his legal economics thesis entitled Rekonstruktion av ofullständiga avtal: särskilt om köplagens reglering av risken för ökade prestationskostnader (The Reconstruction of Incomplete Contracts – Particularly Concerning the Sale of Goods Act’s Regulation of Risk Relating to Increased Performance Costs). A few years previously, he had become a partner in the law firm where he worked, a role he held until transferring to the Supreme Court in 2018.

From 1999 to 2014, Runesson was a board member of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce’s Arbitration Institute. In 2000, he was appointed Reader in Jurisprudence at the Stockholm School of Economics. From 2003 to 2009, he was an adjunct professor of commercial law at Lund University and, from 2016 to 2018, of commercial contract law at Stockholm University. In 2021, he was appointed an honorary doctor at the Lund School of Economics.

In addition to his academic teaching and work as a practising lawyer, mediator and arbitrator, he has published a number of books and articles. These have mainly been focused on contract law, negotiation, mediation and arbitration law. His books include Förhandling: för furstar, småfisk och deras ombud (Negotiation: for Princes, Small Fry and their Representatives, 1992), Avtals- och tvistlösningsförhandling (Contract and Dispute Resolution Negotiation, 2003), Handbok för medling i affärstvister (Handbook for Mediation in Commercial Disputes, 2010) and Licens till patent och företagshemligheter i avtals- och kontraktsrätten (Patent Licenses and Trade Secrets in Contract Law, 2014).

In 2018, he succeeded the author Lotta Lotass on chair number 1 of the Swedish Academy.