The decision to write a book on eminent domain is prompted by the author’s experience in handling expropriation cases as a practitioner, and later, as a judge. The author hopes to bring common practices in expropriation closer to the Rules and/or jurisprudence. He notes, for instance, that under Rule 67 of the Rules of Court, pre-trial conference, an otherwise mandatory fixture in the pursuit of ordinary civil (and even criminal) actions, has no place in the procedure to be followed in expropriation cases.