This year's Yearbook provides information on new arbitration laws in Belarus and Madagascar. Recent changes in legislation in China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region which have facilitated the enforcement of arbitral awards following the resumption of Chinese sovereignty in Hong Kong are given special coverage.

Part II-A excerpts a wide selection of arbitral awards made under the auspices of leading arbitral institutions. Yearbook XXVI selects awards on timely issues from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the ICSID Additional Facility, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Arbitration Chamber of Paris (ACP) and the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI). Jurisdictional issues such as the arbitrability of European competition law and substantive issues including often contested issues of applicable law to the substance, the calculation of damages and interest, and expropriation along with timely themes such as the effect of an export embargo resulting from BSE are given extensive coverage.

Part III-A offers practitioners invaluable information on changes in rules made by arbitral institutions which in turn reflect the evolution of new trends in international arbitration practice. Newly amended rules emanating from several Chinese arbitral institutions and the recently adopted Optional Rules for Disputes Relating to Natural Resources and the Environment from the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the ICC's ADR Rules are a few of this year's high points. For two decades, the Yearbook has reproduced awards made by a longstanding mass claims tribunal, the Iran-US Claims Tribunal.

Part III-B continues this practice in the new millennium by reproducing five awards from the past two years which cover a variety of procedural and substantive issues. The increasing significance of the 1958 New York Convention is reflected by the ever-growing number of countries which enforce arbitration agreements and awards under the Convention.

Part V-A contains decisions from Australia, Colombia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Monaco, The Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Subsequent sections in Part V excerpt court decisions under the European Convention 1961 and the Panama Convention 1975, respectively, and include updated lists of contracting states and signatories of these conventions.