Professor Moses' book is appearing at an auspicious time. The year 2008 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1958 Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention), the keystone on which the entire edifice of international commercial arbitration is built. The anniversary will be celebrated in arbitration circles by events around the world.

It is little remarked, but 2008 is also the eighty-fifth anniversary of the 1923 Protocol on Arbitration Clauses. Although the New York Convention is currently by far the more important, the 1923 Protocol was the more revolutionary. It marked the first occasion on which the international community through the League of Nations agreed upon a multilateral text in the field of arbitration. It was followed four years later by the 1927 Convention for the Execution of Foreign Arbitral Awards. The Protocol and the Convention were highly successful, but both were flawed. At the instance of the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations undertook the revision that resulted in the New York Convention.

For the modern student, scholar, and practitioner this may be all ancient history. However, it is important to remember just how recent the development of international commercial arbitration is. Arbitration has, of course, a long history. Depending on how it is defined, one can find examples going back to Roman times and even before.