It is a pleasure and an honor to write a preface to this transcendental work for the evolution of law at the universal level. Its inspiration is found in the spirit of two extraordinary attorneys: Geoffrey Hazard, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Michele Taruffo, from the University of Pavia. They developed the blueprint for this ambitious project on transnational-civil-procedure rules, and The American Law Institute (ALI) decided to take it up in 1997. The ALI project began with Rules, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) suggested the need for Principles, and final approval by both organizations was of the Principles only, with the Rules conceived as the Reporters' model of how the Principles might be implemented in a particular jurisdiction.

The challenge was Herculean, especially considering the difficulty comparative law has faced in transferring legal devices and concepts from one legal system to another.1 It has been asserted that the more an institution is integrated into the political and legal environment in a specific country, the more difficult it is to assimilate it into another one.