It is good of you to invite me back to address you again. I intend to talk to you upon the conduct of international commercial arbitrations from three arbitration bodies which are located, respectively in London, Paris, and Stockholm. As well as visiting these three European cities, we will also be paying a shorter visit to the American Arbitration Association in New York. I am aware, however, that much that I have to say will be, for some members at this luncheon, superfluous. I was studying over the weekend the papers which were prepared for your seminar “International Commercial Arbitration: an increasingly attractive alternative to litigation” which you held on Saturday, Jan. 20. For those who did not attend that seminar or for those who have not read the papers, I can strongly recommend study of them. A great deal of effort and scholarship has gone into their preparation.

Arbitration has taken me recently on much travel. During the last 10 days I have been in New York, London, San Francisco and now here in Los Angeles. Tonight I return to London before going back to New York. Travelling at this time of year I have particular reason to be sensitive about weather forecasts. In failing to take sufficient account of last Friday’s forecast, I spent the whole of the night at one or other of San Francisco’s airports. You see, we pay, in England less attention to weather forecasts. With our variable weather they can so often be wrong. Indeed an American colleague of mine recalls, during a recent visit to London, asking his hotel hall porter, on his first morning in London, what was “the weather forecast?” The reply was direct—if not very informative—“What do you think I am?” replied the hall porter, “A bloody prophet”. I must, therefore, share with you today’s weather forecast as I read it this morning in a Los Angeles newspaper:

Recent years, especially the last six or seven years, have witnessed the growth of a new species of contracts which can be described as “international contracts”, or better still, “supra-national contracts”. If you choose the latter description it is important to pay attention to pronunciation: a noble and learned Lord in last week’s debate on the Arbitration Bill, in a delightful spoonerism, referred to these contracts as “supernatural”!

The source,1 for most of these contracts, is to be found in the vast and increased oil revenues of certain countries in the Middle East and Africa. Many of the contracts too