ICC is in the privileged position of being able to draw directly on both practice and scholarship in pursuing its objectives. As an organization that serves international business, it acquires, through its members and the services it offers, first-hand knowledge of practices throughout the world. At the same time, in the many deliberative bodies set up under its auspices, ICC enjoys the collective knowledge of countless academics and experts. It is the combination of these two forces that gives ICC its unique relevance and authority.

Arbitration, like all ICC activities, has benefited greatly from these two complementary currents. As a service provider, the International Court of Arbitration has accumulated an incomparable wealth of practical experience. Concurrently, as a forum of lawyers, academics, experts and business executives, the Commission on Arbitration has conducted numerous studies on legal and procedural aspects of international dispute resolution. The convergence of the two activities is exemplified in ICC's dispute resolution rules, which are drafted within the Commission in the light of practical experience and applied by the Court and its Secretariat in the day-to-day administration of cases. This process is itself a guarantee of quality and reliability and has earned the rules the wide recognition they enjoy.

The ICC International Court of Arbitration Bulletin is emblematic of the combination of practice and scholarship that characterizes ICC dispute resolution. The extracts from ICC arbitral awards that are regularly published in its pages provide illustrations of how ICC tribunals have handled important procedural and substantive matters. In this issue, the topic covered is amiable composition, and readers will be able to see how tribunals have implemented their powers as amiable compositeurs and the stances they have taken on the subject. To elucidate the extracts we also publish a commentary by Laurence Kiffer, who, as a practising lawyer and a member of the Commission Task Force on Amiable Composition and Ex Aequo Et Bono, is well placed to write on the subject.

The alliance of objective analysis and practical experience is also reflected in two other contributions in this issue. The first is a much-awaited report from the Commission on Arbitration entitled 'Techniques for Controlling Time and Costs in Arbitration', which is intended to help achieve greater efficiency in arbitration proceedings. The second contribution offers reflections by Dispute Board practitioners on their experience of the ICC Dispute Board Rules in action.

The breadth and intensity of ICC practice in international dispute resolution can be seen from the 2006 Statistical Report, also published in this issue. It is a joy for me, as I leave my current position, to see ICC arbitration so thriving. Although in a different role, I hope to have the opportunity to contribute to the practical and theoretical development of ICC arbitration in the future.

Anne Marie Whitesell

Secretary General

International Court of Arbitration