The Eighth International Consumer Law Conference was held in Auckland, New Zealand, from 9–11 April 2001. John Skinnon of the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand was instrumental in ensuring that the Conference came to New Zealand on behalf of the International Association for Consumer Law, where it was jointly hosted by the Open Polytechnic and the Research Centre for Business Law at The University of Auckland. It was in large part made possible because of the generous sponsorship of the New Zealand Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the Emily Carpenter Consumer Charitable Trust, Butterworths (NZ), CCH (NZ) and the Open Polytechnic. Over 120 delegates attended from numerous countries, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malta, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.

The theme was ‘Consumers' Access to Justice'. The essays collected in this volume were chosen from among the sixty papers presented. We thank the authors for their willingness to have their contributions included, and for the enormous patience they have shown during a lengthy editing and pre-publication period. We hope the quality of the final product convinces them that the wait was worthwhile!

Words of appreciation only inadequately compensate other people who worked with us on this project. First, Thierry Bourgoignie, President of the International Association for Consumer Law, was most gracious in all his contacts with those who organised and hosted the Conference, and was very helpful throughout.