Any practising lawyer and student working with international commercial contracts faces standardised contracts and international arbitration as mechanisms for dispute settlement. Transnational rules may be applicable, but national law is still important. Based on extensive practical experience, this book analyses international contract practice and its interaction with various applicable sources. It considers vital questions concerning the role played by contractual regulation, by national law and by transnational sources. What is the interaction among these factors, and how does this all apply to contracts that refer disputes to international arbitration? This revised second edition has been fully updated to reflect developments in the field and includes useful tools like tables of cases and sources, and a list of electronic resources and databases.