As Professor Jennings observed, “The particular topic of State contracts impinges upon some of the hardest questions of international law.” He concluded that:

The purpose of this article is to mine some of the material to which Professor Jennings refers. It will set forth the awards in eleven cases involving international concession contracts. Ten of these are awards of arbitral tribunals adjudicating controversies between the granting State and the concessionaire; the eleventh, though consisting of Thai municipal decisions, is included because of interesting aspects of the decisions in a case involving a foreign concessionaire. Wherever possible, the arguments of the parties are described. None of these cases has, to the authors' knowledge, been published previously, except, in some instances, in privately printed form.

The principal topics dealt with in the awards may be summarized as follows: the juridical character of a concession contract (Sections I, II, III, IV); the principles governing the interpretation of State contracts (Sections I, II, III, IV); the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations (Sections I, IV, V); State succession to concessionary obligations (Sections I, V); the assignment of concessionary rights (Sections I, V); the right of independent management of the concessionary enterprise (Section II); expropriation of contractual rights and the State's power to renounce its contractual obligations (Sections I, II, III, IV); the application of rebus sic stantibus to concession contracts (Section II); and the nature of the compensation due upon breach or revocation of a concession contract (Sections II, IV, V).