International arbitration perhaps crosses more practical and theoretical boundaries than any other area of law. A practitioner must approach the field prepared to deal with aspects of national, international and conflicts laws, public and private law, and substantive and procedural law. Crucial issues involve policy matters as well as the layers of national and international regulation of the arbitral process. There are also special considerations to be taken into account in the presence of state parties and of third parties.

In a three-day symposium held at the School of International Arbitration, Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS), Queen Mary University of London, on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary in April 2005, a stellar array of practitioners and academics undertook the task of taking a fresh look at some of the persistent legal and practice issues of international arbitration. The conference—and this book derived from it—illustrate the combination of the scholarly and the highly practical which has characterised the mission of the School of International Arbitration since its establishment in 1985.

These insightful papers demonstrate not only the increasing breadth and scope of the subject, but also the way in which many of its themes and issues cross legal and disciplinary boundaries and pose questions for the future of the law and arbitration practice in an internationalised world. These include:

Contributors focus on topics and countries with which they have particular expertise or experience. Both international commercial and international investment arbitration are covered.

This important book will be of great interest to arbitration lawyers, international lawyers and business people, as well as to academics, libraries, and students of dispute resolution.