One of the most pleasant yearly tasks of the Chairman of the Institute is to write the foreword to our recurrent Dossier. This is especially true for this publication, as this will be my last foreword before I leave the Institute at the end of the year.

I am very grateful to all our friends who have contributed to each edition of the Dossier over the past years and have thus contributed to the renown of the Institute.

The mixture of theoretical knowledge and the pragmatism of practitioners, the quality of the writers, the fine-tuning of their contributions and the dedication of the successive co-editors have allowed the ICC Institute to continue publishing the Dossiers, now valued works of reference.

This edition, prepared under the keen supervision of both co-editors, Bernard Hanotiau and Eric A. Schwartz, is no exception, and it is a privilege for me to introduce it. With the development of arbitration, the number of multiparty cases is constantly increasing. As the statistics for 2009 show, 28.5% of ICC cases involved multiparty issues. This has raised questions of an academic and practical nature. Each issue is splendidly discussed in this book, which touches upon all aspects of this topic.

As usual, the contributors to this issue have produced some of the best work in this area.

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This Dossier, as well as the Institute's activities, both as a think-tank for ICC and as a training centre, would not have been possible without the hard work of Laetitia de Montalivet, Director of the Institute. Son professionnalisme, sa fine intelligence, sa constante loyauté (une si rare qualité!), sa connaissance du monde des affaires et de ses principaux acteurs ont considérablement contribué au cours des dernières années aux activités de l'Institut. Qu'elle en

soit ici remerciée ainsi que sa charmante et brillante équipe - Katharine Bernet, Sybille de Rosny-Schwebel… et les autres.

Good luck to all of you.

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