1.1 Questions of private international law loom large in reinsurance and insurance disputes, as witnessed by the sheer volume of reported cases concerning conflicts of law and (re)insurance. In the first place, this is because many (re)insurance risks - particularly those involving the London market and London (re)insurers - are complex, high value and, above all, international in nature. Secondly, it is often the case that the contracts setting out the terms on which such risks are (re)insured are not as clear as they might be on such questions. Thirdly, in large value disputes, one or more of the parties involved will be inclined, because of actual or perceived advantages in the litigation they are involved in, to seek to take private international law questions in the course of such proceedings. The prevalence of arbitration clauses may go some way to diminish but does not prevent this tendency.