Well-behaved search and the Robbins problem -- Goal-Directed Completion using SOUR Graphs -- Shostak's congruence closure as completion -- Conditional equational specifications of data types with partial operations for inductive theorem proving -- Cross-sections for finitely presented monoids with decidable word problems -- New undecidability results for finitely presented monoids -- On the property of preserving regularity for string-rewriting systems -- Rewrite systems for natural, integral, and rational arithmetic -- D-bases for polynomial ideals over commutative noetherian rings -- On the word problem for free lattices -- A total, ground path ordering for proving termination of AC-rewrite systems -- Proving innermost normalisation automatically -- Termination of context-sensitive rewriting -- A new parallel closed condition for Church-Rosser of left-linear term rewriting systems -- Innocuous constructor-sharing combinations -- Scott's conjecture is true, position sensitive weights -- Two-dimensional rewriting -- A complete axiomatisation for the inclusion of series-parallel partial orders -- Undecidability of the first order theory of one-step right ground rewriting -- The first-order theory of one step rewriting in linear noetherian systems is undecidable -- Solving linear Diophantine equations using the geometric structure of the solution space -- A criterion for intractability of E-unification with free function symbols and its relevance for combination of unification algorithms -- Effective reduction and conversion strategies for combinators -- Finite family developments -- Prototyping combination of unification algorithms with the ELAN rule-based programming language -- The invariant package of MAS -- Opal: A system for computing noncommutative gröbner bases -- TRAM: An abstract machine for order-sorted conditional term rewriting systems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications, RTA-97, held in Sitges, Spain, in June 1997. The 24 revised full papers presented were selected from a total of 54 submissions. Also included are abstracts of two invited talks and four system descriptions. Besides classical topics like termination, confluence, or applications to theorem proving, several new approaches to rewriting are presented. All in all, this volume presents the state of the art in the area of rewriting techniques and applications.