The emphasis of this second edition is on the book serving as a practical manual on procedure rather than as a purely academic study. Although the book examines the proposal that some rules of procedure are by now customary law, the detailed description of the process of formation of custom has been omitted from this edition.

Updated procedural rulings are quoted from the records of UN General Assembly meetings, from assemblies of international organisations and from treaty-making conferences, updated to February 2005. Other international conferences nowadays rarely publish records of meetings. The increased availability on websites of records of proceedings has facilitated such updating and also means that readers who so wish can easily access the full record of any procedural ruling.

I should like to thank some of those who have helped with advice, assistance or encouragement, and in some cases all three in this and in the earlier edition: Ms Kochevet Ben-Shahar; Ms Shelly Benvenisti; Judge Thomas Buergenthal; Ambassador Oded Eran; Professor Ruth Lapidoth; Sir Eli Lauterpacht QC; Gaetano Librando; Paolo Ponzano; Johan Rautenbach; Ambassador Shabtai Rosenne; Ms Daphna Shraga; Professor Louis Sohn; the late Professor Paul Szasz; Ralph Zacklin; Paul Zarins; Ms Nili Zentler. My appreciation goes to Ms Elizabeth Davey; Ms Diane Ilott; Ms Jane O'Regan; and Ms Finola O'Sullivan at Cambridge University Press for their professionalism and encouragement.

Finally thanks to my wife Ruthie for her understanding and forbearance.