A new forum has been created in Panama which has a view toward serving the international maritime community and world commerce. Those who participated in its creation feel a part of that perennial enterprise stretching in time, from the spice trade with the Indies to the carriage of North Slope oil from Alaska. Commerce has always been a means — today, with the proliferation of critical confrontations, it is practically the only means — of coherent and pacific intercourse between nations. Those who play a role in making, interpreting, and enforcing the rules that maintain the viability of such an enterprise are verily manning the ramparts of civilization.