This project was conceived in Paris at a meeting with Jacques Ghestin, Horatia Muir Watt and myself at the request of Mauro Bussani. The original cases were formulated by Horatia Muir Watt, Stéphane Reifegerste and me in June 1996. Our questionnaire become the subject of a brain-storming session in Trento in July with all the members of the contract group present which was most useful. I subsequently became editor of the project.

I am indebted to Jacques Ghestin for formulating the theme of the project and to Horatia Muir Watt for her initial contribution and constant encouragement. I would like to record my thanks to Stéphane Reifegerste for his active participation in the early stages of the project and particularly the group work he carried out with the students of the DEA de droit anglais et nord-américain des affaires at the University Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) in the years 1997–98. I am also grateful to Muriel Fabre-Magnan for her friendly counsel and consistent support.

Above all, I would like to record my warmest thanks to the national reporters of this project with whom I would like to think we have formed a team. I would like to make special mention of the friendships and discussions which have ensued by e-mail and in our annual meetings in Trento and notably the intellectual and moral support I received from John Cartwright and Martijn Hesselink.