The ICC International Court of Arbitration was originally created for the purpose of resolving disputes between private business partners. However, its founders were keenly aware that their aims could be fully achieved only with the support of governments worldwide. By introducing legislation in favour of arbitration and by participating in the drawing up of international arbitration conventions, States have played an important role in giving international arbitration the status and effectiveness it enjoys today.

They have done so, of course, to encourage and secure trading relations between their own nationals and those of other States. However, as ICC Court statistics and the activity of other arbitration institutions show, States also use arbitration to resolve the disputes in which they are themselves involved. Significantly, 25% of the public and semi-public parties involved in ICC cases registered in 2003 acted as claimants.

Arbitrations involving States raise many interesting and challenging issues from a legal point of view, and in this issue of the ICC International Court of Arbitration Bulletin we publish a number of papers by specialists in the field examining some of these issues. The State's capacity to submit to arbitration, the authority of a State official to bind a State to arbitration, the characterization of an agreement as an administrative contract and force majeure are discussed by Philippe Leboulanger in a commentary of ICC awards relating to State contracts. Current developments in State immunity and their practical relevance to arbitration are dealt with by Claudia Annacker and Robert T. Greig. The question of applicable law is considered in two further articles, one by Piero Bernardini as part of a wider study of a-national rules of law, and the other by Eduardo Silva Romero in an analysis of contrasting approaches in international arbitrations relating to investment contracts.

Arbitration is the oldest and most widely used of the dispute resolution services offered by the International Chamber of Commerce. The newest, launched in September 2004, consists of a set of documents providing a framework for establishing and operating Dispute Boards. These documents are presented and analysed in this issue by Christopher Koch, who was a member of the group that drafted them. In offering this new service, ICC seeks to give the international business community for which it was founded an appropriately varied range of resources for dealing with disagreements and disputes.

Anne Marie Whitesell

Secretary General

ICC International Court of Arbitration