It seems fitting, given the recent opening of the Secretariat's Hong Kong office, that France and China should be the two countries featured in this issue of the Bulletin. We are pleased to make available to a wider audience Bernard Audit's review of recent French court decisions relating to arbitration, which was presented to the International Court of Arbitration at its Working Session last September. This is followed by a general discussion of arbitration in China, including current developments and some lingering pitfalls, by Secretariat member Fan Kun.

However, the greater part of this issue is devoted to a subject with which ICC arbitration has traditionally strong links-disputes relating to international construction contracts. Such disputes constitute one of the most numerous categories in ICC's caseload and raise a great variety of issues, from the implementation of the dispute resolution clause to the assessment of damages and interest, including matters of liability, expert appraisal, contract termination, etc. The extracts from ICC construction awards published in this issue provide a useful resource covering both procedural and substantive questions, through which construction and FIDIC specialist Christopher Seppälä guides us in his accompanying commentary.

Finally, readers wishing to use arbitration to resolve disputes relating to trusts will find in this issue a specially adapted standard arbitration clause. This clause is the outcome of an assignment given to a Task Force of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and is designed to address the peculiarities of trust disputes, which are reputedly complex and often involve multiple and non-signatory parties.

As the world economy suffers its worst shock for decades, businesses must be helped to overcome the inevitable upheavals, difficulties and disputes this will produce. Appropriate dispute resolution processes are more than ever vital to their survival and ICC, as the world business organization, is constantly alert to this need. As a resource for dispute resolution practitioners, the Bulletin seeks to provide lawyers and businesses with both the legacy of ICC dispute resolution experience and the innovations necessitated by changing needs, so that crisis management becomes more than just a watchword.

Jason Fry

Secretary General

International Court of Arbitration