It is testimony to the success of the ICC International Court of Arbitration Bulletin that this review is today read throughout the world by persons from widely diverse cultures whose experience of arbitration may vary considerably. Although highly gratifying, the diversity of the Bulletin's readership raises particular challenges, requiring a balance to be struck between information and analysis, instruction and scholarship, primary texts and accompanying comment, and between the different legal traditions to which the Bulletin's readers belong. These considerations are carefully weighed when each issue is compiled, so as to try to ensure that all readers will find a measure of satisfaction.

In the present issue, we revisit two ICC dispute resolution services that are perhaps less well known than arbitration: the pre-arbitral referee procedure and expertise. Jean-Yves Garaud and Charles-Henri de Taffin present and analyse the ICC Rules for a Pre-Arbitral Referee Procedure in an article inspired by recent applications of the Rules and their repercussions amongst practitioners, academics and in the courts. Whilst of considerable scholarly interest, the article also has the merit of describing, for those less conversant with it, the practical benefits of a procedure that has long lain in the shadow of arbitration. The Guide to ICC Expertise, taking its lead from the Guide to ICC ADR, is an accompaniment to the ICC Rules for Expertise and provides a brief article-by-article commentary more aimed at the newcomer than the practitioner already familiar with this service for the proposal and appointment of experts and the administration of expertise proceedings.

This issue also contains instructive material on two other topics likely to be of interest to practitioners: insurance disputes and the recognition of arbitral awards in Brazil. The disputes arising out of insurance contracts often turn on the concepts that distinguish these contracts from general contract law. The extracts from ICC arbitral awards published in this issue and Borham Atallah's accompanying article elucidate some of these concepts. Lauro Gama's article on the recognition of arbitral awards in Brazil provides an informative look at very recent legislative changes and reflection on their likely consequences. Whilst news on developments in national arbitration law and practice has always had a regular place in the Bulletin, the choice of Brazil at this time seems particularly appropriate in view of the increasing number of ICC cases with a Brazilian connection. Evidence of this increase will be found in the 2004 Statistical Report, also published in these pages, which provides detailed information on cases handled by the ICC Court during the last calendar year.

Anne Marie Whitesell

Secretary General

ICC International Court of Arbitration