The papers collected here were presented at the 1993 conference celebrating the centenary of the London Court of International Arbitration. There are historical studies which look back over that century: Mr Veeder’s fascinating vignettes of the early arbitration codes prepared by Lord Bramwell (1883) and UNIDROIT (1936); Dr Philip’s panorama of the history of international arbitration during the past century; and Professor Mayer’s elegant summary of the movement towards delocalization of arbitrations. Messrs Lalive and Paulsson take a shorter focus in their papers, considering the lessons of the past decade. Prominent among them is the danger that arbitration may lose its raison d’être if the present trend towards the “legalisation” of arbitration, by means of procedural challenges and the like, continues. The current vogue for Alternative Dispute Resolution, conciliation and mediation is seen, in some sharp observations by Professor Lalive, as little more than an attempt to recover the traditional virtues of arbitration.

The retrospective papers are matched by two sets of prospective papers, looking ahead over the next 10 and 100 years respectively. Increased globalization of arbitration and continuing progress towards the limited harmonization of national arbitration laws are the main trends predicted for the