A general book on arbitration faces multiple dilemmas from the outset. What should be the balance between domestic and international arbitration (despite the international outlook of the book)? How does one discuss investment arbitration without making it look peripheral and how much emphasis should one place on substantive investment law? Should the book discuss consumer and online arbitration and to what degree? This consideration is pertinent, given that the literature generally treats them as distinct from commercial arbitration. Moreover, if the book ultimately bears the title of International Arbitration, isn't there a danger that a considerable part of the audience will naturally wonder whether it covers inter-state arbitration as distinct, or in parallel to, private commercial arbitration? Unlike other legal disciplines whereby the law, although generally complicated is predicated on principles derived from that discipline, such as contract or tort, arbitration is hardly straightforward. Although it is largely a procedural law, no one can fully grasp it unless he or she possesses sufficient knowledge of public international law, the law of contract (certainly from a comparative perspective), comparative civil procedure, private international law (conflicts of law), commercial law and perhaps others, such as EU law. Given the positive perception of arbitration by the legal and business community in industrialised nations it is not surprising that many lawyers now specialise in discrete areas such as construction, intellectual property, maritime, public procurement and many others. All of these considerations make the task of a generalist textbook on international arbitration all that much harder.

The fundamental premise underlying this book has been to make its subject matter as accessible as possible to a wide and divergent audience which lacks expertise in one or more of the aforementioned legal disciplines. Although the author does not assume that his audience has prior familiarity with arbitration and the disciplines that feed it, there is no intention that the book should lack depth, or that its coverage should not be as extensive as its competitors. What the book intentionally lacks is volume. The aim from the outset was to produce an enjoyable, easy-to-read, methodical, yet comprehensive and in-depth book, whose size is such that it may be read and digested in a relatively short time without leaving any gaps in one's understanding.