I have been greatly honored by the invitation of Sir Elihu Lauterpacht and the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge to deliver the Sir Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures for 2001. Because these are the first Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures at the beginning of a new century, it is appropriate to focus on a subject that is likely to endure for many years and to which Sir Hersch Lauterpacht greatly contributed in his own time.

The new arrangements for dispute settlement under international law in an evolving international society pose a number of key questions. First, it must be asked what are the likely characteristics of international society in the foreseeable future and what will be their impact upon the international legal order. The evolution that took place in this respect during the twentieth century offers a number of discernible trends that might serve to identify the basic features of the international society and of international law.

The second major question arises from the fact that international relations in an evolving society, one that is still developing its governing structure and rules, necessarily result in a whole set of new issues associated with the different types of disputes that need to be attended to in the changing legal environment. This in turn raises the question of the most adequate dispute settlement arrangements for handling the new legal, moral and political concerns of the international community.