ABSTRACT
When authors set out to write or edit a book, they should have a clear and compelling answer to the question of why their work is important. That is, what contributions can it make in a world with thousands of books, articles and other sources of information. To us, editing a volume on joint fact-finding (JFF) was both an exciting opportunity and a project long overdue. Great writing-much of it by those that contributed to this volume-is out there, and the practice of JFF is steadily increasing in the world of public sector dispute resolution. However, there has not been a single volume that has pulled together various luminaries in the field to comprehensively illustrate the state-of-the-art in JFF, and point towards some of the important issues and debates that both practitioners and scholars are grappling with. This is our humble attempt to do that.
