The papers in this volume formed the programme of the 1^st International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA), which was hosted by the Dept. of Computer Science of The University of Liverpool from Sept. 11^th–12^th, 2006. This conference originated from the ASPIC project

European Commission Project, IST-FP6-002307

The field of argumentation, once the preserve of linguistic and philosophical investigation, is now rightly seen as providing a core approach of great significance to many aspects of Artificial Intelligence. A central challenge for A.I. researchers, however, concerns how best to develop the long established body of work from more speculative disciplines, such as philosophical treatments of argument and reasoning, into effective and practical computational paradigms: one aim of COMMA, well reflected in the papers contributing to this volume, has been to engage with the issues raised by this challenge. Thus the topics addressed range from formal questions involving properties of algorithms and semantic models, through proposals for robust implementation of argumentation based systems, to reports of applications built on argumentation technology.

It is, of course, the case that the success of any conference depends not only on the quality of the research presented but also on the contributions of many other individuals. The organisers are grateful to the members of the Programme Committee and additional reviewers whose detailed reports and subsequent discussions considerably eased the diffult task of forming the final selection of papers. It is also a pleasure to thank Ken Chan, Phil Jimmieson and Dave Shield for their work in providing technical support throughout the period from the initial announcement to the conference itself, together with Thelma Williams who kept track of assorted budget and financial matters. In addition the editors appreciate the efforts of Carry Koolbergen, Maarten Fröhlich, and Paul Weij of IOS Press in promptly and efficiently handling the many questions that arose during the preparation of this volume. Finally, and by no means least, we thank Catherine Atherton who maintained the conference web pages as well as dealing with general queries.

June 2006, Paul E. Dunne, Trevor Bench-Capon, Michael Wooldridge