This new book, co-authored by two leading practitioners in the field of international arbitration, represents a significant contribution to the growing literature devoted to legal and practical facets of arbitration. It is the first English text to adopt a wholly international perspective and so remedies a glaring omission in the domestic portfolio. Hitherto, the international perspective outside the journal literature had been the monopolistic domain of foreign commentators. The enterprise behind the book is therefore to be applauded, as also is the competence with which the authors have executed their task. It is a comprehensive and thoroughly rounded statement. Given the pedigree of the authors, it is not surprising that the text possesses a substantial practical slant and is a mine of information and good advice for those who practise or find themselves venturing into the field. But the practicality is presented within a framework that reveals the authors’ grasp of arbitral theory and principle in both the municipal and international sphere. The ultimate product is a work within which the intellectual and the pragmatic co-mingle happily and to their respective advantage, and with the reader presented with a well balanced and very relevant commentary.

The book readily impresses itself as being in four parts, although the authors have not attempted any division of the text beyond their nine chapters. The first, coterminous with